Elon Musk, the Tech Billionaire and the owner of several companies spanning various industries such as Space X, Tesla, The Boring Company, Neuralink, XAI and so, recently lashed out at Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese over Australia’s censorship after a court ruled that his social media platform X, formerly twitter, must block users across the globe from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church.
Musk in his X post wrote, “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?”
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA,” added Musk.
War of Words: Musk Vs Australia Fight?
Last week, X Corp., the tech company, formerly Twitter after Elon Musk took over, said it is going to court to challenge Australian orders to remove posts about a knife attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in an Assyrian Orthodox church. The attack happened while a church service was being livestreamed online on April 15th.
Musk, to this, in his X account posted a meme, that showed a cartoon that depicted a fork in a road with one path representing X for “free speech and truth” whereas other social media platforms were represented “censorship and propaganda”.
In another post, Musk posted, “That is exactly the issue. Should the eSafety Commissar (an unelected official) in Australia have authority over all countries on Earth?”
“I’d like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one,” added his another X post.
Australian PM Anthony Albanese response
Prime Minister͏ Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that Elon Musk is an “arrogant billionaire” who thinks ͏he’s better than the rules and doesn’t ͏understand regular people.
“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. Social media needs to have social responsibility with it,” he added
Albanese told Sky News, “This is a bloke who’s chosen ego and showing violence over common sense.”
“This isn’t about censorship. It’s about common sense and common decency. And Elon Musk should show some,” Albanese told Seven Network.
Albanese criticised Musk in multiple TV interviews on Tuesday.