Elon Musk lambasts Australia for 'censorship' of terror posts on X

Elon Musk, the owner of X — formerly Twitter — fired shots at the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday following a court ruling for his social media platform to remove footage of an alleged terrorist attack in Sydney, ABC News reported.

Recently, Australia's Federal Court ordered X to temporarily hide posts that included video of the incident from a week ago, in which a teenager was charged with terrorism for knifing an Assyrian priest and others.

While X said it had already blocked the posts from Australian users, Australia's e-Safety Commissioner said the content should be taken down since it showed explicit violence, Reuters reported.

"Does the PM think he should have jurisdiction over all of Earth?" Musk, 52, wrote in a post, referring to PM Albanese.

The tech billionaire, who bought X in 2022, posted a meme on the platform that showed that the platform stood for "free speech and truth", while other social media platforms represented "censorship and propaganda".

Musk also wrote 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?"

Albanese hit back at Musk, saying the country would "do what's necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he's above the law, but also above common decency".

"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," Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.