Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese lashed out at Elon Musk in multiple interviews on Tuesday, as the billionaire accused him of enabling censorship on his social media platform X after an Australian court ordered it to take down videos of a mass stabbing at a church that authorities have deemed a terrorist incident.
File Photo: X owner Elon Musk has accused the government of attempting to censor content globally on ... [+]
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Albanese said his government will do what is necessary to take on “this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also…common decency.”
The Australian Prime Minister said the X owner’s decision to go to court “for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr. Musk is,” and added “Social media needs to have social responsibility with it, Mr. Musk isn’t showing any.”
Albanese told Channel Nine in a separate interview that Musk was putting himself above anything else in this matter and was using his “billionaire's dollars” to demand the right to circulate violent content that will “sow social division and cause distress.”
On Sky News Australia, Albanese called Musk a “bloke who’s chosen ego and showing violence over common sense,” adding that other social media companies have “complied without complaint.”
Musk shared a post on X stating Australia was “demanding censorship of content” beyond its borders, and wrote: “Should the eSafety Commissar (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on Earth?”
Responding to a clip of one of Albanese's interviews, Musk said: “Well, no president, prime minister or judge has authority over all of Earth! This platform adheres to the laws of countries in those countries, but it would be improper to extend one country’s rulings to other countries. If he want to censor things in other countries, he should bring a legal action to bear in those countries.”