Elon Musk lashed out against the Australian government after his platform was ordered by a court to take down videos and media that showed the stabbing of Orthodox Christian leader Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney on April 15.
The country’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, had earlier told X and Meta to remove the violent media from their platforms within 24 hours.
This week, the Federal Court of Australia ordered the video to be removed from X until Wednesday, and said another hearing would take place to assess Grant’s removal order.
“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,” posted Musk on X on Tuesday, in response to losing the court challenge.
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Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese harshly criticised Musk over his refusal to comply.
X also said that the Australian government wanted it to censor some posts commenting on the attack, claiming that the comments in question did not break the platform’s hate speech rules.
“X believes that eSafety’s order was not within the scope of Australian law and we complied with the directive pending a legal challenge. X has now received a demand from the eSafety Commissioner that X globally withhold these posts or face a daily fine of $785,000 AUD (about $500,000 USD),” posted the company on April 19.
X has loosened its content moderation rules since it came under Musk’s leadership. While its owner claims this is a victory for free speech, the platform has seen a surge in users trying to monetise violent videos and adult content.
Musk’s refusal to comply with the Australian administration is also likely to spook more traditional advertisers, who want tech companies to maintain amicable relations with their government and their audience.
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