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Elon Musk’s social media platform X has refused to remove a video that Axel Rudakubana watched minutes before killing three children, despite multiple requests from Australian authorities and UK.

Australian internet regulator eSafety said on Friday it noted with “great regret” that the video – which shows the brutal stabbing of a Sydney bishop in April – was viewed by the X killer despite the regulator’s request that remove the material from the platform in the previous months the Southport attack last summer.

After the attack in Australia, companies including Google, Microsoft, Snap and TikTok “moved quickly to work with eSafety and ensure that the Wakeley stabbing video is not accessible from their platforms. Some of these company is taking additional, proactive steps to reduce the further spread of the material,” the regulator said. “X Corp chose not to remove the video from its platform.”

Video footage of the stabbing of a bishop in a western Sydney church went viral online in April but X only geoblocked the footage on australianmeaning that people elsewhere in the world, and local VPN users, may continue to see malicious attacks.

UK home secretary Yvette Cooper said this week that the government had contacted X directly to ask it to remove the video from the platform. “Companies should not be able to profit from hosting content that puts children’s lives at risk,” he told the House of Commons.

Rudakubana, 18, was sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 52 years on Thursday after admitting killing three young women at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport.

Musk tweeted repeatedly in the aftermath of the killings, accusing UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer of “putting British girls in mosques before their dance classes”. Musk also amplified the tweets of far-right agitator Tommy Robinson who claimed “Muslims are running in the streets unchallenged by the police, attacking anyone who is not Muslim”. The interventions led to accusations that he had inflamed tensions that led to riots in British towns and cities last summer.

On Friday, Musk shared an article about the Southport murders, saying “Don’t forget”.

But he has so far refused to intervene to force his company to remove the video Rudakubana watched, and the video was still up on X as of Friday afternoon.

The Financial Times contacted X to ask why it had not removed the video, but did not receive a response.

The court in the Rudakubana case heard this week that a search of a Lenovo tablet found at his home showed he had deleted his entire browser history except for one search on the day of the attack. Six minutes before he left to carry out the murders, he searched X for “stabbing mar mari emmanuel”.

When the police did the same search for X during their investigation, they found it led to posts with footage of the attack in Sydney three months earlier.

The prosecution also outlined Rudakubana’s online profiles and social media in court, including his X account. As of Friday, his X account — which was protected, so only followers could see his posts — had not been deleted.

The Australian regulator intends to take legal action to try to force X to comply with a decision to completely remove the video in April, a move that divides the country on whether the government restricts freedom of speech or is right to protect of social media users from harm. and violent content.

Musk criticized the decision, accusing the eSafety “commissar” of trying to censor the internet.

That sparked an angry reaction from the country’s politicians, including Anthony Albanese, the prime minister, who said it was “sad” that X had defied the order to remove the video and criticized the billionaire’s stance.

However, a the court opted against extending the injunction of the video shown on the basis that X took “reasonable steps” to stop the video being shown in Australia. The case is seen as a potential test case for whether local regulations can be applied globally.

The eSafety commissioner dropped its case in June pending a review of Australia’s online safety laws.

Additional reporting by Hannah Murphy