Australia’s eSafety commissioner rejects US Republican’s assertion she is a ‘zealot for global takedowns’
Australia’s online safety regulator has rejected assertions from a key US Republican congressman that she is a “zealot for global takedowns”, as the eSafety commissioner faced questions from the Australian parliament on a Guardian investigation into Roblox,Julie Inman Grant was asked by US Republican chair of the House judiciary committee, Jim Jordan, to speak before the committee last month,The committee produced a report in June arguing the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (Garm), which was shut down in August 2024, had colluded with advertisers and foreign regulators,The committee alleged the group colluded to make demands on then-Twitter about what content it should moderate on its platform,The committee had turned its attention to Inman Grant, after emails from her to the organisation showed the commissioner saying Garm was “helping to hold the platforms to account”.
In a letter from Jordan to Inman Grant published last month, he requested Inman Grant be interviewed by the committee, stating “your expansive interpretation and enforcement of Australia’s [Online Safety Act]...directly threatens American speech”.Jordan referenced eSafety’s failed attempt to have X remove tweets of footage of the 2024 church stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Jordan said of Inman Grant: “As a primary enforcer of Australia’s [Online Safety Act] and noted zealot for global takedowns, you are uniquely positioned to provide information about the law’s free speech implications – both in the US and abroad,“This information will inform the committee’s legislative reforms aimed, in part, at ensuring that foreign censors cannot silence protected American speech,”Sign up: AU Breaking News emailInman Grant told Senate estimates on Tuesday evening she was sending a letter to Jordan, but did not confirm whether she would appear before the committee,“What I am zealous about is protecting children online but I will be going back to him with a letter, explaining a few things,” she said,Inman Grant said she wrote in the letter that Australians expect companies providing services into Australia to abide by Australian laws.
She added that since the church stabbing case that X challenged in the court and eSafety ended up dropping, eSafety had accepted geoblocking Australian users from seeing the posts as compliance with Australian law.“So the conclusion is nothing that we do here with the Online Safety Act affects anything that an American platform will serve to Americans,” she said.“So no, it does not impinge upon Americans’ freedom of speech.”Sign up to Breaking News AustraliaGet the most important news as it breaksafter newsletter promotionInman Grant said she would not make her letter public until Jordan had seen it, noting the congressman’s letter made its way to Sky News at the same time it was sent to her.“I think out of respect for him – when he sent me his letter, he sent it concurrently, it appears to Sky News – I prefer to send it official to official,” Inman Grant said.
Inman Grant is not compelled to appear before the House judiciary committee.Inman Grant had been given until 2 December to respond.Independent senator David Pocock asked Inman Grant about Guardian Australia reporter Sarah Martin’s investigation into Roblox and the bullying and violence children may experience on the platform.Pocock asked about Roblox’s exclusion from the under-16s social media ban – due to come in next week – and whether Roblox was a gaming platform or a social interactions platform.Inman Grant detailed the changes Roblox had made using age assurance to prevent children and adults from interacting with each other.
eSafety officials said Roblox’s primary purpose is gaming – which is one of the exemptions from the ban – but as services evolve and more social features are added, the platforms must continually assess whether they might be covered.Pocock asked if eSafety was conducting similar experiments to those in the Guardian investigation to assess Roblox features.Inman Grant said eSafety was assessing if it had the legal ability to set up accounts for its own testing.“We look at a range of factors in terms of determining what we consider to be the relative risk, experts, things like that … [On the weekend] I’m often reading 404 Media or the Guardian or whatever it is, or Wired and sending [my team] some research to look at,” she said.“We’re doing some of our own testing.
And we’re using our transparency powers, but we’re also just taking complaints in from the general public through our complaints schemes every day.”
HSBC has a new chair but the succession process should have been slicker
It turns out that Sir Mark Tucker, 67, retired as chair of HSBC in September to make way for an older man. Say hello to Brendan Nelson, 76, a former KPMG partner, who has been doing the job on an interim basis for a couple of months but was regarded as a rank outsider to get the gig permanently.Just how permanent remains to be seen because the HSBC chief executive, Georges Elhedery, clearly unaware that Nelson had thrown his hat into the ring, appeared to rule him out when speaking at an FT conference only on Monday. He said Nelson didn’t wish to do a full term of six to nine years, a remark that didn’t feel controversial at the time. After all, while US presidents may go on into their 80s these days, chairs of globally important banks tend not to
UK using more wood to make electricity than ever, Drax figures show
Britain’s reliance on burning wood to generate electricity has reached record highs, even as the government moves to curb the controversial use of biomass power.The latest figures supplied by the owner of the huge Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire have revealed that power generated from burning biomass wood pellets provided 9% of the UK’s electricity in July, its largest ever monthly share.Weeks later, biomass provided almost a fifth (17%) of the UK’s electricity for the first time during one morning in September when renewable energy resources were particularly low.Britain’s record reliance on biomass generation has reached new heights as the government set out its plans to dramatically reduce the controversial energy source under a new subsidy agreement with the FTSE 250 owner of the Drax power plant.Under the deal, Drax will continue to earn more than £1m a day from energy bills in exchange for burning wood pellets at its power plant
Thames Water profits surge on higher bills; Prada buys Versace for $1.4bn – as it happened
Time to wrap up…Thames Water reported its first half earnings this morning, warning that crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.Despite the jump in reported profits, the company said there was “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” on its status as a going concern. A collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) – a form of temporary nationalisation – “could occur in the very near term” if it is unable to agree the terms of a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.HSBC has appointed the former KPMG partner Brendan Nelson as its chair after a prolonged search process that left one of the world’s biggest banks without a permanent executive in the top role for months
Design boss behind new Jaguar leaves JLR weeks after change of CEO
The Jaguar Land Rover design boss behind the Range Rover and the polarising Jaguar relaunch has abruptly departed the business just four months after its new chief executive took charge.Gerry McGovern left the role of chief creative officer on Monday after 20 years at the business in which he oversaw the design of some of the company’s most successful cars as well as the launch of a new-look, pink electric Jaguar that drew the ire of Donald Trump.Britain’s largest carmaker appointed PB Balaji as chief executive in August. Balaji, an Indian national, was previously the chief financial officer of Tata Motors, the Indian owner of JLR.Balaji was due to take over the reins of a business that was performing well, generating nearly three years of consecutive quarterly profits
HSBC appoints interim chair Brendan Nelson to permanent role
HSBC has appointed the former KPMG partner Brendan Nelson as its chair after a prolonged search process that left one of the world’s biggest banks without a permanent executive in the top role for months.The decision to appoint Nelson, who has been serving as interim chair, came as a surprise, after a protracted hunt for a permanent successor for Mark Tucker which involved courting external candidates including the former chancellor George Osborne and the head of Goldman Sachs’s Asia-Pacific division, Kevin Sneader.HSBC failed to find a permanent chair before Tucker left at the end of September, raising questions about the succession planning and the board’s effectiveness, with Tucker having first announced his decision to leave in May.Tucker, a former trainee professional footballer, left after eight years, outlasting three chief executives, to join the Hong Kong-based insurer AIA. The role of HSBC chair has become increasingly politicised, with Tucker navigating simmering tensions between the west and Beijing
Thames Water faces collapse as crisis talks take ‘longer than expected’
Thames Water has said crisis talks to secure its future with lenders are taking “longer than expected” and will drag into 2026 as it faces the prospect of a collapse into government control.Britain’s biggest water company on Wednesday said it had swung to a profit of £414m for the six months to September helped by bills rising by nearly a third, after losing £149m in the same period in 2024.Despite the jump in reported profits, the company said there was “material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt” on its status as a going concern. A collapse into government control under a special administration regime (SAR) – a form of temporary nationalisation – “could occur in the very near term” if it is unable to agree the terms of a formal takeover by its controlling lenders.Those creditors have asked the regulator, Ofwat, and the government for Thames to be let off future fines for pollution, arguing the prospect of hundreds of millions of pounds of extra costs is making a turnaround impossible
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