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Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

Jul 1

We won!

Together with @X, we just defeated Australia’s government in a huge victory for free speech!

The eSafety Commissioner’s effort to censor me and to demand that X complies has failed. This sets an important precedent.

Congratulations, Australia! 🇦🇺

@elonmusk

From the Deputy President of the Tribunal in his ruling:

“The applications before this tribunal have their origin in a social media post insulting Teddy Cook, a transgender man. The post, which among other things refers to Teddy Cook as a woman, has been blocked in Australia as a result of action by the online safety regulator.

“The person who posted the material and the platform on which it was posted have both challenged the decision of the regulator to issue a removal notice. The broad question to be answered is whether the post meets the statutory definition of cyber-abuse material targeted at an Australian adult.

“The more focussed question is whether I can be satisfied that the necessary intention to cause serious harm to the subject of the post has been established. Based on the evidence before me, I am not satisfied that it has. Consequently, the decision of the eSafety Commissioner to issue a removal notice is set aside.”

You know what this means, Australia. You are perfectly free to call a man a man and a woman a woman. It’s not misgendering, and it’s not cyber-abuse.

The only people misgendering are the ones who play along with the cult of gender.

There are two sexes, zero genders, and infinite personalities.

I’ll add a link to the entire ruling soon. It’s truly a devastating blow for the @eSafetyOffice.

All of their experts were dismissed as unconvincing and contradictory. In her worst dreams, the eSafety Commissioner could not have expected such a total defeat.

More importantly, this ruling provides a safe roadmap for free speech in Australia, when that speech intends to genuinely debate matters.

With a shoestring budget, we went up against the inexhaustible resources of the government and won. Why? Because we have truth on our side, and all they have is authoritarianism and lies.

Read 5 tweets

Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

Jul 1

BREAKING: The long-awaited verdict in my lawsuit and @X’s lawsuit against Australia’s government will be announced in a few hours time, at 4pm Australian EST, or 2am ET. @elonmusk

This is the most important freedom of speech case on the planet right now.

More details below. 🧵

https://twitter.com/billboardchris/status/1772434712314695826

My original post upon learning @X had been ordered to take my post down or face a $782,500 AUD fine.

https://twitter.com/billboardchris/status/1772434712314695826

Case Summary

Chris Elston, known as Billboard Chris, a Canadian father of two, took to “X” (formerly Twitter) on 28th February 2024 to share a Daily Mail article titled “Kinky secrets of a UN trans expert REVEALED”.

The article, and accompanying tweet, criticised the suitability of transgender activist Teddy Cook to be appointed to a World Health Organization “panel of experts” set to advise on global transgender policy.

Cook complained about the post to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, who requested that “X” remove the content. The social media platform owned by free speech advocate Elon Musk initially refused, but following a subsequent formal removal order from the Commission, later geo-blocked the content in Australia. X has since also filed an appeal against the order at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Melbourne.

Billboard Chris, with the support of @ADFIntl and the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance, and alongside Elon Musk’s “X”, is appealing the violation of his right to peacefully share his convictions.

The case was heard in Melbourne for five days on the week of March 31st 2025.

“It is vital we challenge the global spread of censorship. We’re used to hearing about governments punishing citizens for their ‘wrong’ speech in parts of the world where strict blasphemy laws are still enforced – but now, from Australia, to Mexico, to Finland, we see Western governments increasingly take authoritarian steps to shut down views they don’t like, often by branding them as “offensive”, “hateful”, or “misinformation.”

“In a free society, ideas should be challenged with ideas, not state censorship. We’re proud to stand with Billboard Chris – and others around the world punished for expressing their peaceful views – in defending the right to live and speak the truth,” commented Robert Clarke, Director of Advocacy for ADF International, who is serving as part of Billboard Chris’s legal team.

adfinternational.org/cases/billboar…

Read 6 tweets

Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

May 13

The Sydney Morning Herald has done an excellent job reporting on my censorship fight with Australia’s government!

Not just my fight — @elonmusk’s and the Trump administration’s, as well.

It was a very bad idea to censor me.

“In March, in a drab hearing room of the Administrative Review Tribunal in Melbourne, lawyers spent five days going back and forth about a post on social media platform X from a Canadian anti-trans activist and whether it should have been removed from the internet.

“Now, a year after that post was published, the case has caught the attention of the Trump administration, which is accusing Australia – among other countries – of coercing American technology companies into egregious censorship.

“With the White House warning that it is out to enforce free speech around the world, the matter has the potential to creep into high-stakes trade talks between the United States and the re-elected Albanese government.”

Article continues in the thread.👇🏼🧵

“The administration has been really straightforward,” David Inserra, a fellow at the Cato Institute, a free market Washington think tank, says. “They view these types of actions as assaults on American competitiveness.”

What happened?

Chris Elston describes himself as a father of two girls who “decided to take a stand against gender ideology”. In practice, that means regularly touring the streets of North America – and the world – with billboards that say: “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers”.

It also means publishing a constant stream of anti-transgender material on social media, where he is known as Billboard Chris. Elston rejects the “anti-trans” label. “I cannot be anti something that doesn’t exist,” he says. “I am pro-child.”

In late February 2024, Elston read a Daily Mailarticle about Teddy Cook, an Australian trans man and activist who was then the community health director at NSW charity ACON, which advocates for the LGBTQ+ community and on HIV/AIDS. The article purported to reveal Cook’s “kinky track record” and questioned his appointment to a World Health Organisation advisory body on transgender issues.

Elston posted a link to the article on X, the Elon Musk-owned platform formerly called Twitter. “This woman (yes, she’s female) is part of a panel of 20 ‘experts’ hired by the @WHO to draft their policy on caring for ‘trans people’,” Elston wrote, before questioning Cook’s suitability for the appointment.

Cook complained to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, and on March 22 last year, a delegate ordered X to remove the post. A letter from the delegate to X said the post deliberately misgendered Cook, invalidated and mocked his gender identity, was offensive and constituted cyberabuse. If X failed to remove the post, it was liable for a $782,500 fine.

The platform complied by geo-blocking the post in Australia, although it is still available elsewhere, including in the United States. Musk’s company also appealed to the Administrative Review Tribunal, as did Elston, leading to the hearing that was held in March.

Read 9 tweets

Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

May 8

The United States has accused Australia of “coercing” Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, into “censoring” free speech, as part of a broader complaint about foreign countries pressuring the tech giants.

At issue is a decision taken by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner to require that X remove a post by Chris Elston, a Canadian campaigner against “gender ideology”. Mr Elston is known online as “Billboard Chris”.

The tweet in question, from February of 2024, took aim at an Australian transgender activist, Teddy Cook, who had been appointed to an advisory panel at the World Health Organisation.

Mr Elston misgendered Mr Cook, who identifies as male, and suggested global guidelines for dealing with trans issues were being written by “people who belong in psychiatric wards”.

He later acknowledged it was “not my nicest tweet ever”, but insisted it was accurate.

“These kids are lost and confused and they’re being lied to, but there are clearly psychiatric issues, and as per all the scientific evidence, the children who end up in these gender clinics are struggling with various mental health comorbidities,” Mr Elston said.

Mr Cook complained to the eSafety Commission, which issued a takedown request for the post, saying it “deliberately” misgendered him in a way “likely intended to invalidate and mock the complainant’s gender identity”.

X and Mr Elston both challenged that decision, prompting a more formal removal order. Mr Elston’s tweet is now geoblocked in Australia, but remains visible overseas.

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labour, which is housed in America’s State Department, has cited the case as a reason to be “concerned” about governments “coercing” tech companies.

“The Department of State is deeply concerned about efforts by governments to coerce American tech companies into targeting individuals for censorship. Freedom of expression must be protected, online and offline,” the bureau said in a statement.

“Examples of this conduct are troublingly numerous. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened X for hosting political speech; Turkiye fined Meta for refusing to restrict content about protests; and Australia required X to remove a post criticising an individual for promoting gender ideology.

“Even when content may be objectionable, censorship undermines democracy, suppresses political opponents, and degrades public safety.

“The United States opposes efforts to undermine freedom of expression. As (American Secretary of State Marco) Rubio said, our diplomacy will continue to place an emphasis on promoting fundamental freedoms.”

Here’s a very brief summary of the two non-Australian examples.
Mr Breton, a Frenchman who was, at the time, commissioner for the internal market of the European Union, was accused of going rogue when he sent a letter to Mr Musk threatening consequences if content on X placed European Union citizens at risk of “serious harm”.

Turkey fined Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, for resisting pressure from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to restrict content from its political opponents. Meta said the content was “clearly in the public interest”.

“Government requests to restrict speech online alongside threats to shut down online services are severe and have a chilling effect on people’s ability to express themselves,” the company said in a statement at the time.

Back to Australia. Last month, the eSafety Commissioner and Mr Elston both testified before the Administrative Review Tribunal in Melbourne. The Commissioner argued the X post was likely “intended to have an effect of causing serious harm”.

Mr Elston was asked why he had chosen to write the post.

“Because the World Health Organisation has global influence,” he said.

“We should have evidence-based care.”

Read 4 tweets

Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

Apr 10

Judge lashes child gender-medicine experts in blow for peak clinic!

The mother, who wants to harm her child with puberty blockers, has been stripped of custody!

One of Australia's foremost child gender medicine experts has been ruled to have misled the Family Court when giving evidence to support a mother who wished to prescribe her child puberty blockers, in an astonishing judgment that calls into question the integrity of one of the nation's peak gender clinics.

Justice Andrew Strum's extraordinary judgment, which stripped the mother of custody and effectively prevented the child from accessing treatment, criticised the approach of hospitals to children questioning their gender, saying the decision to “affirm unreservedly” any child that raises concerns over their gender is "oddly binary".

He also found the gender clinic that treated the 12-year-old failed to formally give a gender dysphoria diagnosis until the court proceedings had commenced, despite having treated the child since they were six.

The case marks the first time a sitting judge has blown a hole in the country's gender-affirming treatment of care guidelines.
While Justice Strum does not comment generally on the gender-affirming care model adopted by the gender clinic at the child's hospital, the judgment raises big questions regarding the treatment of gender-incongruent children.

The matter centred on the biologically male child whose mother believes is gender dysphoric and should be prescribed puberty blockers, but whose father wanted to hold off on treatment and "let the child be the child".

In handing down his judgment, Justice Strum sided with the father who did not wish to "pigeonhole" his child, and decided
"all options" in the child's life should be open.

"This is a case about a child, and a relatively young one at that; not one about the cause of transgender people," Justice Strum wrote.

“As this child grows, develops and matures, and explores and experiences life, the child might, with the related benefits of the passage of time and the acquisition of balanced understanding, come to identify as a transgender female and might elect to undergo some form of medical treatment, to affirm and/or align with that identity. But, similarly, with those benefits, the child might not do so, and for a variety of reasons.

"At this stage in the child's life, all options should be left open, without any unacceptable risk of harm to the child."

In his decision, Justice Strum declared gender dysphoria was not "immutable" but could be influenced by external factors, placing him at odds with the Australian Standards of Care, which back a gender-affirming treatment model.

Read 6 tweets

Billboard Chris 🌎

@BillboardChris

Apr 4

Right now in Australia, a seminal free-speech battle is being fought that proves censorship regimes are no longer constrained by geography.

At the heart of this case is Billboard Chris, a Canadian father who publicly advocates against gender ideology. 🧵

Billboard Chris (real name Chris Elston) has gained international attention for wearing a sandwich board, stating ‘Children cannot consent to puberty blockers’, and striking up conversations with members of the public about trans ideology. Elston has now been forced to travel to Australia to defend his right to post what he likes and have it be seen by his Australian followers on the American-owned social-media platform, X.

Last February, Elston shared an article from the Daily Mail on X about the appointment of Australian trans activist Teddy Cook to a World Health Organisation ‘panel of experts’ on transgender policy. Along with posting the article, titled ‘Kinky secrets of UN trans expert REVEALED’, Elston criticised Cook’s agenda and supposed expertise.

The post drew a complaint from Cook to Australia’s ‘eSafety commissioner’, which demanded its removal. While X initially resisted, it eventually ‘geoblocked’ the content in Australia – so Australians, at least, couldn’t see it. Now, a legal battle for free speech is being waged Down Under, with both X and Chris challenging the censorship order. With the support of ADF International and the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance, Elston is arguing that the eSafety commissioner violated his right to peacefully share his beliefs.

Elston landed in Australia last week, ahead of his five-day hearing this week. To make matters worse, when he ventured out on to the streets of Brisbane with his trademark billboard, intending to speak with the public, he was forcibly moved on by police and almost arrested.

Read 7 tweets

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