Elon Musk picks ‘propaganda’ fight with Anthony Albanese after defying Federal Court order
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is currently involved in a war of words with billionaire Elon Musk, after the tech giant refused to comply with a Federal Court order to remove videos of the Wakeley church stabbing from social media platform X.
The eSafety commissioner won a court injunction in the Federal Court against X forcing the removal of the content, after the company ignored formal takedown notices. The online safety regulator says it worked successfully with Google, Microsoft, Snap, and TikTok to remove the “extremely violent video content” from their platform, but X and Meta “were not taking adequate steps to protect Australians from this material”.
Meta later complied, but X has held firm, with owner Musk baiting Albanese with the below message.
“To be clear, the removal notice does not relate to commentary, public debate or other posts about this event. It only concerns the video of the violent stabbing attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel,” an eSafety spokesperson said of the initial takedown request.
“eSafety will continue to use its suite of powers under the Online Safety Act to protect Australians from serious online harms, including extreme violent content.”
Albanese responded to Musk’s stance, saying “I find it extraordinary that X chose not to comply and are arguing their case.”
Musk retweeted Albanese’s views on the matter, tweeting, “I’d like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one.”
This morning, while preparing to walk the Kokoda Trail, the PM took further aim at Musk, telling Today’s Sarah Abo the entire debacle “just shows his arrogance.”
“He is an egoist, he is someone who is totally out of touch with the values that Australian families have,” Albanese said of Musk, pointing to his purchase and rebranding of Twitter as one example, labelling his treatment of the platform “a vanity project for himself rather than for the people who are consumers.”
The PM continued: “He’s putting his ego and putting his dollars towards taking a court case for the right to put more violent content on that will cause distress to people who are on his platform. Other social media operators have accepted the decision of the eSafety commissioner.
“This is something that’s not a partisan issue here in Australia, the PM reminded everyone’s just strong on this.”
Keep up to date with Mumbrella Daily
Got a tip?
Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
Linkedin
Kennedy Jr: There Was No Time In History Where The People Censoring Free Speech Were The Good Guys.
User ID not verified.
Musk is literally the biggest d*ckhead in the world..
[Edited]
User ID not verified.
You should be able able to see content even if its offensive. Just having safety warnings is enough. Otherwise you can have a government that mitigates what citizens can see which is not safe
User ID not verified.
Have your say