PM says government is seeking to block 'abhorrent' US execution livestream
Anthony Albanese says the government is exploring all options to prevent the potential live streaming of a US execution from being seen in Australia.
Source: ABC Australia · October 13, 2026 at 7:31 AM · AI-assisted report
Single-sourceKUALA LUMPUR, 13 OCTOBER 2026 —
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that his government is exploring all options and doing whatever it can to prevent the potential live streaming of a United States firing squad execution from being viewed in Australia, describing the prospect as completely abhorrent.
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If the broadcast proceeds, it will mark the first time an execution in the United States has been live streamed. However, US President Donald Trump is yet to make the ultimate call regarding the December 3 execution, with Albanese noting that Trump has indicated in the media that he is giving consideration to the matter and weighing whether the broadcast should go ahead.
The controversy follows comments made last week by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan—who was convicted of killing 13 people at a military base in Texas in 2009—would be made available for the public to watch. That plan was subsequently questioned within the US administration when Vice-President JD Vance cast doubt about whether the public broadcast would actually occur.
Speaking on Tuesday to the Australian Broadcasting Corp's Afternoon Briefing, Albanese said the government was seeking formal advice on its available options, though he acknowledged that blocking the material was not as simple as turning off a light switch.
Albanese stated that Australia has long maintained a bipartisan position of opposition to the death penalty, adding that he found the idea of live streaming the death of anybody completely abhorrent and that the nation should do whatever it can to stop that from occurring.
The domestic regulatory capacity to halt such a broadcast remains constrained under existing mechanisms. Australia's eSafety Commission stated on Monday that it could not prevent Australians from seeing the execution, with a spokesperson explaining that while the regulator does not possess powers to proactively prevent a live stream from occurring online, online services carry distinct responsibilities under Australia's online safety regulatory framework to protect users from harmful material.
Albanese said he would make it very clear to social media platforms that such content has no place in Australia, warning tech companies that broadcasting the event would cause severe reputational harm and urging them to exercise social responsibility by refusing to carry the footage. Media requests sent by the ABC to major digital platforms including Google, Meta, and TikTok asking whether they plan to restrict the execution content had not received responses.
The issue generated intense debate across the political divide in Australia's parliament, where federal lawmakers urged the government to pull every single lever to block the broadcast. During Tuesday's Question Time, Greens Leader David Shoebridge questioned Foreign Minister Penny Wong regarding shared values between Australia and a government that publicly broadcasts state-sanctioned snuff films.
Wong responded that it would be deeply distressing for any such vision to be live streamed, emphasizing that Australians, particularly younger citizens, should not be confronted with it and that digital platforms have an obligation to meet expectations that such material will not appear on screens.
Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Ted O'Brien also called on the government to ensure Australians are shielded from the broadcast, telling Afternoon Briefing that the prospect of young Australians watching an execution was deeply concerning, appalling, and repugnant, and reiterating that authorities must look at every possible lever to ensure the event is not live streamed if it goes ahead.