SYDNEY: An Australian court has ordered X to hide some posts commenting on the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney, deepening a war of words between the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Australia’s federal court late on Monday (Apr 22) granted the country’s cyber regulator, the eSafety commissioner, a two-day injunction requiring the social media platform to hide some posts on a knife attack last week against an Assyrian church bishop, Mar Mari Emmanuel, during a service at his church.
Albanese on Tuesday hit out at Musk, calling him an “arrogant billionaire” for pushing back against the Australian government’s calls to take down the content.
X had blocked the content for its users in Australia but said it would not block the posts for users outside the country, arguing that the government had no authority to dictate content its users can see globally.
On Tuesday, Musk said X will appeal against the Australian injunction.
“Our 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 tech billionaire posted on X.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA,” he added.
