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 observing that the section was intended to apply whether or not the relevant service is provided from within Australia). It notes that the provisions in what became Part 9 of the OS Act were substantially a re-enactment of earlier provisions in Schedules 5 and 7 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (Cth) (the BS Act). Within the time frame of an urgent interlocutory decision, the extent to which I have been able to do my own research on the legislative history is limited. With the parties (both represented by competent counsel) not having submitted that any part of the legislative history would assist me in resolving the constructional issues as to what a removal notice requires to be done, I have proceeded on the basis that analysis of the former provisions of the BS Act would not be illuminating.

44 The breadth with which the objects of the OS Act are expressed indicates that "any of the endusers in Australia" in s 12 should not be read narrowly. I was not taken to anything in the Act suggesting that the location of the IP address through which a person physically located in Australia connects with the internet was intended to make a difference as to whether they were to be denied access to class 1 material by operation of a removal notice. The Act does not use concepts derived from the structure of the internet, in lieu of ordinary geographical or territorial notions, to describe where people are. I have concluded that the phrase was intended to have its ordinary meaning and that "removal" therefore means making the material inaccessible to all users physically located in Australia. The original location of the relevant provisions in the BS Act, which regulates traditional broadcast media, tends (albeit not very strongly) to confirm this conclusion.

45 What the removal notice requires, therefore, is "all reasonable steps to ensure" that the 65 URLs are not accessible to any users physically in Australia. What is meant by "reasonable" steps is therefore critical.

46 I have no doubt that removing the 65 URLs from its platform altogether would be a reasonable step for X Corp to take, in the sense that a decision by X to take that step could readily be justified. There is uncontroversial evidence that this is what other social media platforms have done, and that X Corp would not be in breach of any United States law if it took this step. However, this is not the test. The OS Act pursues a policy. It is not bounded by the policies of service providers or their contractual relationships with their users. Section 109 imposes its requirements regardless of the wishes of providers and of individual users. eSafety Commissioner v X Corp [2024] FCA 499