- Elon Musk was criticized by an Australian minister for refusing to remove X posts about a stabbing.
- Tanya Plibersek told 7News that Musk is an “egotistical billionaire” after Musk resisted the calls.
- Social media posts on the attack contained a lot of misinformation, the Guardian reported.
An Australian minister slammed Elon Musk as an “egotistical billionaire” over his refusal to take down X posts.
The posts included comments on the stabbing of Sydney-based bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, which occurred last week. Video clips of the attack have since circulated on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Tanya Plibersek, Australia’s minister for the environment and water, made the remarks on news station 7News after the stabbing was captured on the church’s livestream and shared on X, per the Guardian.
Plibersek said on Monday, “It beggars belief, doesn’t it, that this egotistical billionaire thinks it’s more important for him to show whatever he wants on X or Twitter … for him to have his way than to respect the victims of the crimes.”
In a post, X’s global government affairs account said that it received a “demand” from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, or face a “daily fine of $785,000 AUD.”
Musk responded in an X post Friday, “The Australian censorship commissar is demanding global content bans.”
According to the Guardian, significant amounts of misinformation was spread on social media after the attack, after which there was a riot.
X owner Musk has maintained that the platform is a site for free speech since he acquired the company, formerly known as Twitter, in October 2022.
More recently, the billionaire has resisted calls from a top judge in Brazil to ban accounts that spread election misinformation and are associated with the far-right.
Brazil’s supreme court judge Alexandre de Moraes responded and said the court would investigate Musk and that he’d face a fine of about $20,000 a day for each blocked account reinstated in Brazil, Associated Press reported.
X has in the past taken action and removed certain accounts, like in January when it banned an account tied to Hamas’ military wing. But for the most part, Musk has resisted removing content from the platform as he thinks it can restrict free speech.
In a wide-ranging interview with Don Lemon last month, he defended his position on X’s content moderation policies and said, “Moderation is a propaganda word for censorship.”
X didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
