MELBOURNE, Australia — Tech billionaire Elon Musk implicated Australia of censorship after an Australian judge ruled that his social media platform X needto block users aroundtheworld from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reacted Tuesday by explaining Musk as an “arrogant billionaire” who thoughtabout himself above the law and was out of touch with the public.
X Corp., the tech business rebranded in 2023 by Musk after he purchased Twitter, revealed last week it would battle in court Australian orders to take down posts relating to a knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in an Assyrian Orthodox church as a service was being streamed online on April 15.
The product was geoblocked from Australia however offered somewhereelse.
But the regulator that made the orders, Australia’s eSafety Commission, which explains itself as the world’s initially federalgovernment company devoted to keeping individuals moresecure online, effectively used to the Federal Court in Sydney for a short-lived international restriction on sharing the video of the bishop being stabbed.
In an after-hours hearing Monday, Justice Geoffrey Kennett reduced the videofootage from all X users till Wednesday, when an application for a irreversible restriction will be heard.
Hours lateron, Musk published on his individual X account a animation that portrayed a fork in a roadway with one course leading to “free speech” and “truth” and the other to “censorship” and “propaganda.”
Musk pointedout Albanese informing pressreporters Monday that other social media platforms had mostly complied with the regulator’s orders to take violent material down.
“I’d like to take a minute to thank the PM for notifying the public that this platform is the just honest one,” Musk published.
Albanese scolded Musk in numerous tv interviews Tuesday.
“We’ll do what’s required to take on this conceited billionaire who believes he’s