Elon Musk is in a row with the Australian government after its online safety regulator called for a video of an Assyrian bishop being stabbed at a Sydney church to be removed from X, his social media platform.
The video shows Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel being stabbed during a church service that was being livestreamed on April 15. The nonfatal attack, which authorities said was a terrorist act motivated by suspected religious extremism, led to rioting outside the church.
Australia’s eSafety Commission has called for X to completely remove the video from its platform for all users, and not just block it in Australia. Most other major social media platforms have agreed to remove the video, but Musk argues that if X complies with the takedown order, then “what is to stop any country from controlling the entire Internet?”
Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told an Australia television network Tuesday that the matter wasn’t about censorship, but rather “common sense and common decency.”
On Monday, a judge in Sydney ordered a temporary ban on the video for all X users, pending a hearing on Wednesday about a permanent ban.
Since taking over Twitter and rebranding it as X, Musk has seen a proliferation of hate speech and spam content on the site, which has caused advertisers to abandon the platform. X has also become one of the main sources of distribution for nonconsensual deepfake pornography.
For his part, Musk — who thinks of himself as a free speech warrior even though X routinely acts against his critics — seemed to cast his resistance to taking down the stabbing video as some kind of noble decision.
The rift between Australian leaders and Musk raises interesting questions about jurisdiction and the regulation of internet content. For his part, Musk — who thinks of himself as a free speech warrior even though X routinely acts against his critics — seemed to cast his resistance to taking down the stabbing video as some kind of noble decision.
“The Australian people want the truth,” he wrote in another post, citing another user’s claim that X is now the most downloaded news app in Australia. “X is the only one standing up for their rights.”