Sydney:

An Australian court has ordered X to hide some of its posts commenting on the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney, deepening a war of words between social media platform owner Elon Musk and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. .

Australia’s Federal Court late on Monday gave the country’s cyber regulator, the e-Security Commissioner, a two-day injunction against the social media platform for last week’s stabbing attack against an Assyrian church bishop, Mar Mari Emmanuel, during a service. Some of the posts were asked to be hidden. His church.

Albanese attacked Musk on Tuesday, calling him an “arrogant billionaire” for pushing back against calls from the Australian government to remove the content.

X had blocked content for its users in Australia but said it would not block posts for users outside the country, arguing that the government had no authority to dictate content that its users viewed globally. can see on

Video of the attack posted online showed the attacker, restrained by the congregation, shouting at the bishop for insulting Islam. The police have accused the 16-year-old youth of terrorism for this attack.

The regulator asked X to remove some posts that publicly comment on the attack, which may include videos.

Judge Geoffrey Kennett ordered X to block access to the positions until Wednesday afternoon in a hearing hours later, court documents showed. The matter will be considered again on Wednesday.

Albanese said there should be social responsibility on social media, but Musk was fighting to keep violent content on his platform.

“We will do what is necessary to take this arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law, but also above common decency,” Albanese told national broadcaster ABC on Tuesday.

“What the e-Safety Commissioner is doing is doing his job to protect the interests of Australians.”

Musk previously referred to the e-Safety Commissioner as the “Australian Censorship Commissioner”, prompting a rebuke from Albanese who described X’s fight against removing violent content as “extraordinary”.

“I’d like to take a moment to thank the Prime Minister for informing the public that this platform is the only true one,” Musk said in a post on The X Hour on Tuesday before Albanese’s comments.

Musk posted an image showing that X stands for “free speech and truth” while other social media platforms were dictated by “censorship and propaganda.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)