Musk and Albanese spar over X's refusal to take down stabbing video globally
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The news: Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has hit back at Elon Musk after the X owner accused Albanese of being complicit in censorship and propaganda.
This followed the Federal Court granting the nation’s eSafety Commissioner an emergency injunction to force the social media platform to remove videos of last week’s Sydney terrorist attack.
The context: X, formerly Twitter, and Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, were last week ordered by the eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant to remove material depicting “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail”.
Meta was found to have complied with the request, but X accused Inman Grant of “global censorship” and said it would challenge the orders in court.
A key question in the legal battle is whether Australia’s online safety watchdog has the power to impose a global ban on content, or just within Australia.
While X geo-blocked the posts in question, they were still accessible globally — meaning Australians who used a virtual private network (VPN) connection could access them.
What they said: “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?" Musk said on X hours after the court decision.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA.
“The Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans!
“I’d like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one.”
Albanese said: “This is a bloke [Musk] who's chosen ego and showing violence over common sense," the prime minister told Sky News on Tuesday morning.
"I think that Australians will shake their head when they think that this billionaire is prepared to go to court fighting for the right to sow division and to show violent videos which are very distressing.
“He is in social media, but he has a social responsibility in order to have that social licence.
“I say to Elon Musk, that he is so out of touch with what the Australian public want. This has been a distressing time. And I find this bloke on the other side of the world, from his billionaires establishments, trying to lecture Australians about free speech, well, I won't cop it and Australians won't either.”
The sources: X, PMO
