By Amalia Theocharidou,
Elon Musk is definitely a man of the spotlight. With his spontaneous acts, like the buying of Twitter and its renaming to X, and the plans to acquire Stanford University, he always remains on the talk of netizens and on the scenter of timeliness. Elon’s spontaneous and careless nature is the one that’s making the incredibly rich man stand out –and not only for good reasons– each time, as there have been many incidents that have been mercilessly made fun of by Internet users.
As X has been under fire recently with Brazil banning the popular platform for a few days, since it didn’t comply with the country’s policy and then bringing it back, the tycoon is once again involved in great statements considering the app. More specifically, in September, the Australian Government proposed a law under which each social media that helped or condescended in spreading misinformation would have to pay a fine of 5% of their global revenue. In order to be saved by the fines, the companies would have to establish codes that would spot misinformation, after being tested by a regulator. If the code system wasn’t applied, then the fine would be inevitable.
Elon has openly expressed himself in the past as a full-on supporter of the freedom of speech, as he even calls himself a “free speech absolutist”. Such an act didn’t go unnoticed by him, leading him to quote the said article on X and use only the word “Fascist” to characterize the Australian Government. This excessive statement led to a series of Australian officials coming for Musk and his behavior over the years. “Elon Musk had more positions on free speech than the Kama Sutra […] When it’s for commercial interests, he is the champion of free speech and when he doesn’t like it, he is, you know, he’s going to shut it all down.”, these were the words of the Minister for Government Services, Bill Shorten, on the program of the Australian network, Channel Nine.
The Assistant Treasurer, Stephen Jones, spoke up on Musk’s claimed hypocrisy stating live that, “For the life of me, I can’t see how Elon Musk or anyone else in the name of free speech, thinks it is OK to have social media platforms publishing scam content […] Publishing deep-fake material, publishing child pornography. Livestreaming murder scenes, I mean, is this what he thinks free speech is all about?” he claimed. Along with him, the Communications Minister, Michelle Rowland, stated as well that the law was proposed to protect Australia’s integrity and democratic values, that keep the societal fiber stable.
X has had ongoing judicial issues with the Australian state, as of the same month, considering the fine of 610,500 Australian dollars the state had issued against the app, last year. X’s defense team was quick to ask for a resolution and dismission, stating that the fine was applied to the so-called Twitter and that since X is a new entity, it isn’t entitled to pay. As Musk is still under fire, it is only a matter of time before the issue takes again the route to the juries.
References
- Elon Musk calls Australian government ‘fascists’ over misinformation law. CNBC. Available here
- Elon Musk Sues His Critics into Silence. So Much for ‘Free Speech’. CATO Institute. Available here
