Extreme conservative influencer Andrew Tate is among those using footage of the Wakeley stabbing to push hateful rants and conspiracies on X, days after an attack at Bondi Junction was followed by a swell of misinformation leading to the vicious harassment of an innocent 20-year-old student, prompting calls for the social media network to do more to moderate harmful posts.

The stabbing attacks have each been seized upon by certain communities on X to promote racist and antisemitic conspiracies and rants. In the Bondi Junction case, an infamous troll misidentified the suspect and made claims about his Jewish identity in a post viewed more than 400,000 times. In the Wakeley case, footage of a bishop being stabbed has been repurposed, republished, remixed and circulated endlessly.

Andrew Tate publishes a graphic edited version of the Wakeley attack, as well as a related rant on “male rage” against atheists and Zionists.Credit:

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday morning acknowledged the damage that online platforms can cause in the wake of these crises.

“We remain concerned about the role of social media, including the publication of videos that can be very harmful, particularly for younger people who have access,” Albanese said. “Anyone with a phone essentially can do that.”

On Tuesday afternoon, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had issued X and Meta (parent of Facebook and Instagram) with notices to remove footage of the Wakeley stabbing or face fines.

“While the majority of mainstream social media platforms have engaged with us, I am not satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online,” she said.

“I will not hesitate to use further graduated powers at my disposal if there is noncompliance.”

X, formerly Twitter, has been widely criticised for its approach to harmful material since it was acquired and renamed by billionaire Elon Musk. In January, X provided information to eSafety showing that under Musk’s leadership it had sacked 80 per cent of its safety engineers, and reinstated many accounts previously banned for hateful conduct, which Inman Grant described as a perfect storm for abuse. The platform has previously been fined by the office for failing to respond to its requests, and more recently said it would challenge eSafety in court over an order to remove abusive material.