Musk criticizes suppression of X terror postings after an Australian court verdict

SYDNEY: Following a court order for his social media business X to remove video of a suspected terrorist incident in Sydney, Elon Musk took aim at Australia’s prime minister on Tuesday. He said that the verdict indicated any nation could control “the entire internet.”.

Australia’s Federal Court ordered X, previously known as Twitter, to temporarily conceal postings that included footage of the event that occurred a week ago, in which a teenager was accused of terrorism after he knifing an Assyrian priest and others, at a hearing that took place overnight.

Although X claimed to have previously prohibited Australian users from seeing the postings, the e-Safety Commissioner for Australia recommended that the material be removed due to its graphic depictions of violence.

A meme depicting X as a platform for “free speech and truth” and other social media platforms as “censorship and propaganda” was shared on X by billionaire Elon Musk, who acquired the company in 2022 with the stated goal of preserving free speech.

He remarked beneath the post, “Ask the Australian PM; don’t take my word for it.”

In a different article, Musk said that the company’s “concern is that if ANY country is allowed to censor content for ALL countries, which is what the Australian ‘eSafety Commissar’ is demanding, then what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”

The third-richest individual in the world’s backlash creates a new front in the conflict between the $44 billion platform and nations and NGOs demanding more control over its material.

A U.S. court dismissed X’s case against the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a monitoring group, last month. X was fined A$610,500 by the Australian e-Safety Commissioner last year for not assisting with an investigation into anti-child abuse measures; X is now contesting the penalty in court.

Replying to Musk, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that his nation will “do what’s necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency.”.

Albanese said to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., “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.”

X and the e-Safety Commissioner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A Reuters reporter in Australia was able to see the assault film, despite Musk’s claim in a different article that X had rendered it “inaccessible to Australian IP addresses”.

According to Alice Dawkins, executive director of internet policy non-profit Reset.Tech Australia, “pro-terror materials are a particularly strange hill to die on, but fits the company’s chaotic and negligent approach to the most basic user safety considerations that the platform used to take seriously.”