Elon Musk escalates feud with Australia over X as spy chief warns of extremism
- Musk accused Australia’s leaders of trying to censor the internet after a court ordered his platform to stop showing footage of a bishop being stabbed
- It came as the country’s spy chief warned that the internet was already ‘the world’s most potent incubator of extremism’ – and it’s only getting worse
One senator, Jacqui Lambie, deleted her X account on Tuesday to protest against publication of the footage and called for other politicians to do the same, saying Musk had “no social conscience or conscience whatsoever”. She added Musk should be jailed.
When an unnamed X user posted overnight that it was Lambie who “should be in jail for censoring free speech on X”, Musk replied to his 181 million followers, “Absolutely. She is an enemy of the people of Australia”.
A representative for Lambie, an independent senator for the small island state of Tasmania, declined to comment.
Targeting individuals is a regular strategy of Musk, the world’s third-wealthiest person, as he goes after governments that try to exert more oversight of content on social media.