(Sydney) Billionaire Elon Musk, boss of the social network X, on Thursday evening called the Australian government “fascist”, unhappy with a bill intended to sanction platforms that do not fight against disinformation.
“Fascists,” wrote one word about Mr. Musk on X, commenting on a post about the bill introduced by the Australian government on Thursday.
The text provides in particular 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, Elon 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, eSafety commissioner and former Twitter employee, formerly known as X, said Elon Musk’s acquisition of the network coincided with a rise in “toxicity and hate” on the platform.
The Australian courts ultimately lifted the injunction in May, a decision Mr Musk celebrated as a victory for free speech.
The billionaire also recently ran into trouble with the courts in Brazil, where Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered “the immediate suspension” of X throughout the country in early September in the absence of a legal representative for the network in the country.