‘Arrogant billionaire’: Australia, Musk in war of words over censorship
Al Jazeera
Elon Musk and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese clash over order to remove X posts on church stabbing.
Australia and Elon Musk have escalated their war of words over censorship after an Australian court ordered social media platform X to remove footage of a church stabbing.
An Australian judge on Monday ruled that X must block users worldwide from accessing videos of a knife attack on an Assyrian Christian bishop in Sydney after the country’s internet watchdog sought an injunction.
The Federal Court in Sydney granted the temporary global ban after X had said it would challenge eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s notice to remove posts related to last week’s attack on Mar Mari Emmanuel.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the government was prepared to take on Musk, whom he labelled an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency”.
“What the eSafety Commissioner is doing is doing her job to protect the interests of Australians, and the idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out-of-touch Mr Musk is. Social media needs to have social responsibility with it. Mr Musk is not showing any,” Albanese told public broadcaster ABC.
