Australian Greens Urge Blocking of U.S. Execution Livestream

The Pentagon has said Hasan’s execution would be livestreamed on 3 December, although the U.S. government has not confirmed how or on which platform the stream would be carried. The plan has drawn severe concern in the United States and internationally, including from politicians, religious leaders and human rights advocates, with critics comparing the Trump administration to dictatorships in Iran and Afghanistan. The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Friday that broadcasting the killing would amount to a public execution and breach the absolute prohibition of torture.

Hasan, 56, is a former army psychiatrist. He was sentenced to death by a military jury in 2013 after being convicted of 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Twelve of the 13 people killed and 30 of the wounded were soldiers.

Hanson-Young’s intervention comes amid uncertainty over whether the Australian government can or would act to restrict coverage of a legal proceeding carried out by an ally. Australian federal government sources said there may be limitations in what the commonwealth can do to order restrictions on an ally carrying out its own legal proceedings. The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts said large broadcasters such as television stations must comply with rules about reporting violent or distressing content. A spokesperson said they would be expected to exercise strong editorial control over their coverage and act responsibly.

In comments to the ABC, Hanson-Young said: ‘I think this is incredibly shocking and barbaric, and Australians don’t want this on our screens.’ Her letter called on the government to take pre-emptive steps and warn platforms including YouTube, Meta, TikTok and streaming services that they should not allow the video to be available in Australia. She also said the eSafety Commission should pursue regulatory action against any large platforms that allow the broadcast of the execution. ‘Inaction on this will jeopardise millions of Australians’ online safety,’ she wrote.

Her call found support across the political divide. One Nation MP Barnaby Joyce called the public nature of the execution ‘Roman amphitheatre stuff’ and told News 24 that he did not want children, or anybody, to witness another human being being shot by a firing squad. Shadow treasurer Tim Wilson said allowing the execution to be streamed would be ‘enormously problematic’, but he added that he had concerns about opening the door to a censorship ban on the internet. He told the ABC: ‘If it’s going to be livestreamed, how are you going to do that without creating the artifice to be able to block content on the internet and create an online portal of censorship?’

Under the Online Safety Act, the eSafety commissioner has powers to order platforms to block Australians’ access to specific posts containing vision that would be classified as refused classification under Australia’s classification code. Ultimately, the office or the classifications board would need to determine whether the footage, if it goes ahead, meets the bar of ‘crime, cruelty, violence or revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults’.

The most high-profile example was when the eSafety commissioner ordered platforms to remove footage of the stabbing of a bishop in a Sydney church in 2024, which Elon Musk’s X challenged. It resulted in a shift for eSafety away from requiring their removal to just blocking Australians’ access to the content. eSafety again used the power last year to order the removal of videos of the assassination of the right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk. X challenged the classification of the video, and the classification review board reduced the rating of the video from refused classification to R18+.

Wells’s office and the eSafety Commission were contacted for comment. Government sources said they were investigating what action could be taken. However, it was noted that such an execution, which is legal under the American justice system, would potentially be treated differently to videos showing unlawful killings or other serious crimes, which have been restricted by Australian regulators. Government sources also pointed to a lack of clarity from the Trump administration, The Guardian reported.

Editor's Summary The Australian Greens are seeking to block the planned U.S. livestream of Nidal Malik Hasan’s execution, arguing it should not be shown in Australia. The U.S. plan has drawn international criticism, while Australian officials are examining limited regulatory options under online safety rules. The dispute also highlights tensions over platform regulation and the boundaries of censorship.