Elon Musk has mocked Anthony Albanese in a series of posts on his social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
The eSafety commissioner won a two-day interim legal injunction to force X to hide any material depicting the alleged stabbing of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel last Monday while he was giving a livestreamed sermon at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.
Following the ruling, Mr Musk taunted the Prime Minister on the platform, accusing the Australian government of prompting censorship.
“I’d like to take a moment to thank the PM for informing the public that this platform is the only truthful one,” he said on X.
Mr Albanese vented his frustration at the entrepreneur while doing the morning media rounds on Tuesday morning, saying he’s willing to do “what’s necessary” as he unleashed on Musk.
“This is a bloke who’s chosen ego and showing violence over common sense,” he told Sky News.
“This bloke thinks he’s above the Australian law, that he’s above common decency, and I’ll tell you what, I say to Elon Musk that he is so out of touch with what the Australian public wants.
“And I find this bloke on the other side of the world, from his billionaire’s establishments, trying to lecture Australians about free speech, well, I won’t cop it and Australians won’t either.”
Mr Albanese suggested he was willing to do whatever was necessary to take on Mr Musk.
But speaking later on Nine, Mr Albanese declined to go as far as saying the platform could be banned in Australia.
“Well, we certainly will look at what measures we can take to strengthen … We don’t want … censorship here,” he said.
X – formerly known as Twitter – and Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, were ordered by the eSafety commissioner to take down the material of the stabbing at the Assyrian Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley.
While Meta complied, X said it would comply in the interim but would launch legal action.
It prompted the eSafety commissioner to go to the Federal Court, arguing that X had failed to fully comply with the law because it was geoblocking the content rather than deleting it, meaning the content could not be viewed in Australia but could be seen elsewhere.
If a person in Australia uses a virtual private network, which hides their location, they can view the content.
Lawyers for the eSafety Commission argued that geoblocking did not go far enough to comply with the Online Safety Act.
But lawyers for X sought a delay, saying they had not yet been able to seek instructions from their client.
Justice Geoffrey Kennett granted a temporary injunction for two days, meaning X must hide the posts until the matter returns to court on Wednesday when lawyers can argue against the injunction before a final decision is made.