Elon Musk, a tech entrepreneur, referred to the Australian government as “fascists” on Thursday in reference to their intentions to suppress online falsehoods.
In accordance with a bill that Australia’s Labor government introduced on Thursday, social media corporations that facilitate the spread of false information might be fined up to 5% of their worldwide turnover.
Tech companies would have to create codes of behavior that would need to be authorized by regulators in order to prevent harmful misinformation from spreading. If platforms didn’t comply, they would have to pay a fee and have to use another standard that the regulator had established.
Musk, who views himself as a supporter of free speech, retweeted an item about the new legislation on his social media site, X, and added a single word to it.
Emirati officials charged Musk with being a hypocrite.
The Australian network Channel Nine was informed on Friday that “Elon Musk had more positions than the Kama Sutra regarding free speech” by Government Services Minister Bill Shorten. “He is the defender of free speech when it serves his business interests, and he will shut it all down when he doesn’t like it.”
Musk’s remark, according to Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, was “crackpot stuff,” and the purpose of the proposed legislation, he added, was to defend Australian sovereignty against international digital platforms.
For the life of me, I don’t see how anyone, even Elon Musk, believes that social media sites can broadcast fraudulent content in the name of free expression, Jones said to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
publishing child pornography and deeply false content. streaming crime scenes live,” he said. Is this, after all, what he believes to be the essence of free speech?
Misinformation and disinformation, according to Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, “as well as to our democracy, society and economy,” represent a severe threat to Australians’ safety and well-being.
“There is no option to do nothing and let this problem fester,” she declared.
During a second reading of the measure on Thursday, she made reference to the possible 5% penalty and added, “These penalties are high.” “But they might be required,”
Musk has already clashed with Australian authorities.
A representative for X claimed this week in an Australian federal court that X was not subject to a charge of 610,500 Australian dollars ($388,000) levied by an internet safety authority last year for handling content pertaining to child sexual abuse because the fine was imposed on Twitter, which is no longer in operation. Between X and the Australian regulator, eSafety, there are multiple ongoing cases. This is one of them.
After X was ordered by a court to erase graphic content connected to an online-streamed stabbing incident on a Sydney bishop, Musk accused Australia of censoring the country in April. Anthony Albanese, the prime minister of Australia at the time, referred to Musk as an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law.”
Afterward, after a federal court declined to prolong an interim order to restrict the graphic content, the Australian regulator abandoned its legal action.