eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant called to testify before US Congress by Donald Trump ally over ‘threat’ to Americans’ free speech

Sky News has exclusively obtained a scorching letter signed by US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan - a Republican congressman and close ally of President Donald Trump - in which he accuses eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant of being “a zealot for global takedowns”.

The letter, understood to have been sent to Ms Inman Grant on Tuesday afternoon, requests she gives testimony before the committee within the next two weeks, by December 2.

“Your expansive interpretation of Australia’s OSA [Online Safety Act] – including your claim of extraterritorial jurisdiction to censor speech outside of Australia – directly threatens American speech,” the letter says.

“Global content takedown orders are concerning because they harm the free speech rights of those outside of Australia’s jurisdiction and set the precedent that other governments may do the same.”

The letter cites Ms Inman Grant’s court bid last year for the global removal of footage of the livestreamed stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emannuel in a western Sydney church – a move labelled “silly” by then Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and “global censorship” by X owner Elon Musk.

While X had argued in court it was sufficient to “geo-block” the URLs – hiding them from Australian users – eSafety’s lawyers argued this could be easily circumvented with a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which obscures geographical location, necessitating global action.

“As a primary enforcer of Australia’s OSA and noted zealot for global takedowns, you are uniquely positioned to provide information about the law’s free speech implications – both in the U.S. and abroad,” the letter goes on.

“This information will inform the Committee’s legislative reforms aimed, in part, at ensuring that foreign censors cannot silence protected American speech.”

The letter also accuses Ms Inman Grant of having “colluded with pro-censorship entities in the United States to facilitate Australia’s, and other, global censorship regimes.”

It cited a keynote speech she delivered at Stanford University on September 25, at which other attendees and panelists included “officials from some of the entities with the worst track records of extraterritorial censorship, including the European Union and Brazil”.

“Put plainly, the roundtable sought to facilitate cooperation with global censorship by bringing together foreign officials who have directly targeted American speech and represent a serious threat to the First Amendment,” the letter said.

Rep. Jim Jordan says in the letter Ms Inman Grant’s “close ties with Stanford are troubling given the university’s past efforts to facilitate U.S. government censorship of lawful American speech”, citing an earlier Committee finding that the Stanford Internet Observatory had played a “key role” in enabling the US government to “covertly silence American voices to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election”.

While the request is for US-born Ms Inman Grant to voluntarily appear, Sky News understands there could be moves to legally compel her should she decline.

A spokesperson for the US House of Representatives Committee on the Judiciary said: “If there is nothing to hide, then she should voluntarily appear before Congress”.

The Albanese’s government’s pursuit of social media and tech companies, many of which are US-based, has been considered a potential flashpoint with the Trump administration.

Ms Inman Grant discontinued her action against X in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal over its refusal to take down the stabbing video last year.

In July this year, the Administrative Review Tribunal struck out a 2024 order by Ms Inman Grant demanding X also remove a post that insulted transgender activist Teddy Cook.

Chris Elston, more widely known as Billboard Chris, had misgendered Cook, equated transgender identity with mental illness and suggested Mr Cook was “too smutty” for intergovernmental work.

Musk nicknamed Ms Inman Grant the “Australian censorship commissar”, while Prime Minister Anthony Albanese labelled Musk an “arrogant billionaire” over the feud.

Sky News put a number of questions to Ms Inman Grant about the letter from Rep. Jordan, including whether the eSafety commissioner would testify before the committee.

An eSafety spokesperson did not directly answer that question, but claimed the independent regulator “does not require global removal of harmful content under the Online Safety Act”.

“In the case of removal notices, eSafety considers geoblocking to be a reasonable step,” the spokesperson said.

“There’s nothing we’re doing that prevents American companies from displaying whatever they want to Americans.”

The spokesperson cited the regulator’s acceptance of geo-blocking videos of the murders of Charlie Kirk and Ukranian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was stabbed on a train in North Carolina in August.

He said eSafety “by necessity… collaborates with law enforcement, other government agencies, academic institutions and non-government partners around the world, including in the United States”.

“While the implied freedom of political communication is a basic democratic principle in Australia, the Australian Parliament, like other jurisdictions, has also determined certain categories of material – such as the depiction of child sexual abuse or the promotion of terrorism – fall outside that implied freedom,” the spokesperson said.

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