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A Canadian free speech advocate fined by Australian authorities came after the US State Department appeared to come to his defense.
“It’s phenomenal. The Trump administration has been incredible about this issue,” said Chris Elston, commonly known as “Billboard Chris,” for his habit of wearing a sandwich board with a slogan.
In Australia, Elston was fined $806 for “interfering with public movements” in response to reading his sign “children cannot agree to adolescent blockers.”
Elston said he had been in peaceful conversations with the public and issued a police “moving” order before being sent.
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“Billboard Chris” Elston (Getty)
The incident was separate from the legal challenge Elston announced in April to the country’s eSafety committee after the government had tweets about Daily Mail articles about transgender activists sitting on the Australian board.
“It’s an overuse of very enthusiastic authority,” Elston said. “We don’t choose [officials] To decide what we can say. ”
After he was censored, the incident was included in a tweet from the State Department’s Office, denounced government censorship and enforcement of high-tech companies to target individuals.
Billboard Chris reflects on the violence he met with protesting gender surgery for children
“Freedom of Expression must be protected – online and offline.”
“The example of this act is troubling. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton threatened X to hold a political speech. Türkiye punished Meta for refusing to limit the content of the protest.
“The United States is opposed to efforts to undermine freedom of expression.”
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Lois McClatchy Miller of Alliance Defending Freedom International, who defends Elston, said the group “that everyone has the right to live and speak their truth, and Chris is a great example of that.”
“[W]E stood up with Chris alongside the Australian Human Rights Law Alliance to defend freedom of speech there, but in my country in the UK we can also see it in my UK home country where people have stopped censoring that they even arrested people for expressing their opinions. ”
Charles Kraitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers the media, politics and culture of Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a Bachelor of Arts in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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