Elon Musk said Australian regulators are trying to “control the entire internet” after a court there ordered X to hide video of an alleged terrorist attack.
The court ordered X to take down any posts with video of the attack from last week. The footage shows the stabbing of an Assyrian priest and several others.
X said it was happy to block the content in Australia but said it was an overreach for the court to order the takedown of the content across the platform.
“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?” Mr. Musk wrote of the decision.
The platform’s owner also took shots at Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, asking, “Does the PM think he should have jurisdiction over all the Earth?”
Mr. Albanese quickly responded, calling Mr. Musk an “arrogant billionaire.”
“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,” Mr. Albanese told Sky News Tuesday.
X’s policy on violent or hateful content suggests that videos of the Sydney attack could violate the platform’s rules.
“We will remove any accounts maintained by individual perpetrators of terrorist, violent extremist, or mass violent attacks, and may also remove posts disseminating manifestos or other content produced by perpetrators,” the policy reads.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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