Australia’s Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones on Monday (Apr 22) strongly criticised Elon Musk’s social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter), labelling it a “factory for trolls and misinformation.” 

This comes as the Australian government pledged to defend against any legal actions X may initiate over the authorities’ content removal demands related to a video of last week’s Sydney church stabbing.

The controversy began after eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, issued an order last Tuesday for X and Meta to remove videos depicting a violent stabbing incident at a church in Sydney. 

While Meta complied, X resisted, arguing that the demands exceeded the scope of Australian law and accused the Australian regulator of enforcing “global censorship.” It also said it would challenge the order in court.

In a post on X, Elon Musk said: “The Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans!”.

Jones, as per The Guardian, responded assertively, saying the government “will fight it” in court if necessary.

“At the same time we’re looking at all of the laws across these areas to ensure that our regulators have the power to do what is necessary to keep our online platforms safe,” he said in a conversation with ABC.  

“And then Twitter can’t be the place where criminals go, where cranks and crooks go to propagate their messages. At the moment, it’s a factory for trolls and misinformation that damages the brand of the company, but it does a lot of damage to social cohesion in the process.”

He also expressed disappointment in Musk’s approach to the situation and said: “Decency can’t be dead. And I think any Australian looking at that would go: ‘Come on.’ Like it’s a pretty simple and straightforward request. It’s a lawful request.”

Australia’s minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme told ABC that X was acting like it was “above the laws of a nation”.

“It is entirely unexceptional of a nation to say we want to take down some of the most violent and shocking footage, and somehow for them to say we’ve got freedom of speech, but we’re allowed to pollute the metaphorical airwaves with horrible vile and imagery—no one gets to vote for X. They do vote for governments and governments are accountable.”

“So I do think what the eSafety commission has done [is] exactly right. It is about protecting citizens,” he stressed.

(With inputs from agencies)