Elon Musk’s X faces penalty of $782,500 a day if it does not remove alleged Sydney terror attack videos

Elon Musk has been branded a “megalomaniac” who is creating “untold damage” as it’s revealed the billionaire could pay social media platform X’s fine for refusing to remove violent stabbing footage from a Sydney church for centuries.

Elon Musk could afford to personally pay the fine for his social media platform X’s refusal to remove footage of a violent stabbing attack in Sydney for centuries, as the billionaire is accused of putting his “ego” ahead of “common decency”.

As one of the richest people in the world Mr Musk, who has an estimated net worth of US$179 billion, could technically fund the maximum penalty for failing to comply with the eSafety Commssioner’s take down notice every day for the next 980 years.

After winning a temporary injunction from the Federal Court on Monday, the eSafety Commissioner has signalled it will now pursue a permanent order forcing the removal of posts of the church stabbing footage, as well as seek civil penalties against X Corp.

If the court deemed it appropriate, X Corp could be hit with a fine of $782,500 — about half a million US dollars — per day until it complies.

This figure still pales comparison to the estimated value of X Corp of about US$12.5bn based on a leaked report of mutual fund giant Fidelity marking down its shares earlier this year.

Billionaire Elon Musk could afford to pay the maximum penalty for failing to comply with an eSafety Commissioner directive for several lifetimes. Picture: Jim Watson/AFP

Anthony Albanese was scathing of Mr Musk on Tuesday, accusing the tech billionaire of being led by his “ego” and using his personal wealth to fight to for allowing violent content on X.

“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,” the Prime Minister said.

Mr Albanese said Australians “won’t cop” being lectured on free speech by a billionaire on the other side of the world.

“No one is above the law,” he said. “Not Elon Musk, not any Australian citizen when it comes to operating here in Australia.

“He has a business that gives him a lot of profit, and I just find it extraordinary that this bloke thinks he’s above the law and above common decency.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has accused Elon Musk of prioritising his ego over common sense and decency. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Musk fired off several taunts on X in response, describing the eSafety Commissioner as a communist “commissar” and accusing Australia of trying to “censor content for all countries”.

X was given 24 hours starting Monday night to hide footage of the alleged terror attack at a Sydney church from all global users under the interim injunction.

Home Affairs minister Clare O’Neil labelled Musk a “megalomaniac” on Wednesday, and said his actions were creating “untold damage, division and vast mental health problems”.

“This is just a disgraceful act of this company… it’s untold damage, creating vast problems in mental health in spreading terrible attitudes around the world,” she said on Sunrise.

Home Affairs Minister Clare O'neil. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“They are creating civil division, social unrest, just about every problem that we have as a country is either being exacerbated or caused by social media and we’re not seeing a skerrick of responsibility taken by these companies.

“Instead, we’re seeing megalomaniacs like Elon Musk going to court to fight for the right to show terrorist content, alleged terrorist content, on his platform. This tells us everything we need to know.”

Lawyers for the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant and X Corp are expected to face off again before the temporary order expires at 5pm on Wednesday.

X Corp is already challenging a civil penalty of $610.500 issued last year after failing to answer questions about how it was tackling child sexual abuse material.

That infringement notice was issued after a seven-month back-end-forth between the tech giant and independent regulator, indicating X Corp’s willingness to drag compliance issues through the court system.

In a statement a spokeswoman for the eSafety Commissioner said the removal notice issued to X only related to footage of the alleged terror attack, not “commentary, public debate or other posts”.

United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet was criticised on Tuesday after he shared a video of the stabbing on X with the message “to the Australian government and the eSafety commissioner go f--k yourselves”.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said it was “appalling behaviour”.