X boss Deanna Romina Khananisho says Sydney church stab video showed miracle

A social media boss has said it would be “tyrannical overreach” to remove a video of a “horrific” stabbing of a bishop at a church in western Sydney which was watched by Axel Rudakubana on the morning of a stabbing attack in the English town of Southport.

Rudakubana, then aged 17, searched social media site X for a video of the stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel six minutes before he left home on July 29 last year.

The teenager murdered Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven; Bebe King, six; and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine; and attempted to kill 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

X’s head of global government affairs Deanna Romina Khananisho told the Southport Inquiry on Tuesday she was “passionate” about a “free speech mission”.

Nicholas Moss KC, counsel to the inquiry, asked whether by showing the video of the suspected terrorist attack, which happened as the bishop’s sermon was being livestreamed at a Sydney church, X risked promoting it.

Ms Khananisho, who gave evidence over a video link and said she is a “devout” member of the bishop’s Assyrian church, agreed the footage showed a “horrific incident”.

But she said she had been watching the sermon live as the attack happened and “saw a miracle unfold”.

She said: “People saw a monster.”

“I saw an angel protecting Mar Mari.”

She added: “I actually see hope. I actually see faith. I actually see forgiveness.

“I do watch that video and I watch it for those reasons.

“For you to take that away from me under the guise of safety that isn’t justice, that’s tyrannical overreach.”

The inquiry was told X, which Rudakubana had a number of accounts on, allowed children over 13 to set up an account but there were extra restrictions on accounts of under-18s.

However, in July 2024 age was simply verified by users entering their date of birth.

Ms Khananisho said: “Frankly, it wouldn’t matter how many protections we have in place, at the end of the day, if somebody is determined to find the content they would find the content on any platform.”

Mr Moss said the inquiry had asked X for any information linked to Rudakubana’s phone number, three email addresses or the X handle Red_Lorry123.

The hearing was told the social media company originally told them of the identification of four accounts linked to the email addresses but, on Monday night, provided information of three other accounts.

Mr Moss said X had refused to disclose the content of messages sent by Rudakubana without a legal order.

They had not yet responded to a request for the date of birth used by the attacker when he set up his account, the inquiry was told.