Lambie steals Albo’s thunder in Australia’s war on Musk | Samantha Maiden
Surprisingly, it’s no longer the Prime Minister who seems to have riled up the Tesla billionaire the most, writes Samantha Maiden.
Anthony Albanese lashed out at tech mogul Elon Musk this week, calling him an “arrogant billionaire” over his refusal to remove videos from the social media platform of a Sydney priest being stabbed by an alleged terrorist.
The owner of the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has chosen this hill to die on, the right to broadcasting images of a knife-wielding minor allegedly attacking an Assyrian bishop during a live stream.
The Prime Minister said Australia would “do what’s necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire, who thinks he’s above the law but also above common decency.”
Mr Albanese said the episode showed that Musk was “out-of-touch” with the public, adding that “social media needs to have social responsibility with it — Mr. Musk is not showing any.”
And to think just seven years ago Mr Musk was happily visiting Australia with his then girlfriend Amber Heard and visiting Currumbin Bird Sanctuary and dining at Moo Moos restaurant on the Gold Coast.
This week, the federal court issued an interim injunction ordering X to temporarily hide posts that showed footage of the Sydney church attack.
In a plot twist, Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel, who was left injured in the attack then revealed he didn’t have an issue with the broadcast of the material.
The court heard from the lawyer representing X Corp, Marcus Hoyne, that Assyrian Orthodox Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel supported the video, showing him allegedly being attacked by a 16-year-old, being available online.
The Federal Court didn’t release the affidavit so it’s not clear exactly what he said although Mr Hoyne told the court an affidavit had been turned over to the court from the bishop saying that he is “strongly of the view the material should be available”.
The matter will return to court on May 10.
But despite Mr Albanese’s chest thumping threats to the billionaire, it was Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie who got under his skin.
She suggested the billionaire “put his big boy pants on” and address requests by Australia’s eSafety commissioner in relation to graphic content being circulated online.
“Elon Musk’s X was asked by the Australian online safety regulator to remove 65 tweets containing video of the Sydney church stabbing attack,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Elon Musk should put his big boy pants on and do the right thing – but he won’t because he has no social conscience.”
Senator Lambie has deactivated her X account called on other politicians to do the same to “lead by example”
“He has absolutely no social conscience,” Senator Lambie said of Musk during an interview with Sky News on Tuesday. “That bloke should not have a right to be out there creating hatred.”
X was previously fined $386,000 in Australia for failing to co-operate with a probe into anti-child-abuse practices.
“I think he’s a social media knob with no social conscience, he has absolutely no social conscience,’’ Senator Lambie said.
“Someone like that should be in jail and the key be thrown away. That bloke should not have a right to be out there on his own ideology platform and creating hatred, showing all this stuff out there to our kids and doing all the rest.
“Show him that you mean business.”
Mr Musk — who is also the CEO of Tesla — tweeted that Australia was engaging in international censorship.
“I do not think I’m above the law. Does the PM think he should have jurisdiction over all of Earth?” Mr Musk said.
“This platform adheres to the laws of countries in those countries, but it would be improper to extend one country’s rulings to other countries,” he tweeted.
Mr Musk insisted that X had “actually blocked the content in question for Australian IP addresses, pending legal appeal, and it only exists on servers in the USA.”
The Coalition meanwhile has returned to the issue of age limits for social media, which if you are a parent or grandparent with offspring addicted to Snapchat sounds like a better idea than the status quo.
Will it work?
Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, as well as X (formerly Twitter), do have age limits of at least 13 years old.
But the issue as Communications Minister Michelle Rowland concedes, is “getting them to enforce it”.
“Age limitations are indeed some of the issues being examined right now as part of the online safety review,” Ms Rowland said.
“No one wants vulnerable people, especially children, seeing certain content that is not age appropriate.”
Speaking at the National Press Club, Commissioner Reece Kershaw conceded it was a problem.
“As a parent, back in the olden days and still today, you go to the playground and you make sure your kids are safe,” he said.
“If you are going to that particular playground, you watch them and make sure they stay safe.
“It is not a dissimilar strategy with the internet in the sense that you have to be connected into your child and see what they are doing on the internet.”
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