Billionaire Elon Musk, head of the social network X, described the Australian government as a “fascist”unhappy with a bill intended to sanction platforms that do not fight against disinformation. “Fascists”he wrote in a single word on X, commenting on a publication on the draft law presented Thursday by the Australian government. The text notably provides for imposing fines of up to 5% of their annual turnover on technology giants in the event of non-compliance with their obligations in this area.
In April, Musk announced that X would appeal an injunction issued by the Australian courts and requested by the Australian regulator eSafety to remove from the platform all content related to the assault of a bishop of an Assyrian church in the suburbs of Sydney. Julie Inman Grant, commissioner of eSafety and a former employee of Twitter, the former name of X, said that Elon Musk’s acquisition of the network coincided with a rise in the “toxicity and hatred” on the platform. The Australian courts eventually decided to lift the injunction in May, a decision that Elon Musk celebrated as a victory for free speech.
The billionaire has also recently run into legal trouble in Brazil, where Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered in early September “immediate suspension” of X throughout the territory in the absence of a legal representative of the network in the country.
