The sparks have been exploding in an argument between the Australian government and Elon Musk, owner of X (formally twitter) over a few dozen posts depicting the attempted murder of a Christian ‘father’ occurring a few weeks ago in a Sydney suburb. The Sydney police immediately categorized the incident as a “terrorist attack” without a proper investigation. Senior members of the Australian government made statements to legacy media and on X, that the posts were not appropriate and should be taken down. Musk refused, enabling a barrage of rhetoric from the government.
Governments attempting to influence X is well known, particularly once the “Twitter Files” were released.
What was subsequently revealed was the number of requests from the US government and their security agencies to censor posts, usually anti-establishment, anti-democrat/republican actors, including anti-war accounts.
Elon Musk made a stand at this point, after purchasing the social platform, that ‘Twitter’ would be a free speech platform, and outside political influence would be taken under advisement.
Musk has stuck to his guns on his stand on free speech with a few exceptions.
Fortunately, X has ‘terms and conditions’ for the platform.
In this case, if there is a question as to what or should not be published is a matter of Law and the various Courts. Rather than pursuing a childish media circus as the Australian government has done, following legal protocol was ignored, creating another drama and debate on free speech and censorship.
Prime Minister Albanese entered this fray, saying this instance was not about free speech and uttering something else in vague terms.
Another MP, (name omitted) told Musk to “put on his big boy pants and do the right thing.” This MP should remain in her tiny constituency, representing the working people, and refrain from entering an important subject, free speech, and censorship.
(This was a political antic. Pushing her name to the forefront of Australian politics.)
Of course, this is about free speech, and more so, governments deciding what speech is appropriate for the people.
X is currently in a legal battle with Brazil. This case is much more dire, as a single supreme court judge is censoring his political opponents for posts on X, even to the extent of slamming individual Brazilian citizens in jail for their comments on the platform. He has laid fines on X and has physically threatened the organization.
On a morning show today, an Australian “cyber security expert” appeared on the screen telling the audience that cancelling X entirely from Australia is on the table!
(A word of advice: anyone claiming to be an expert on cyber security and social media should be taken with mountain of salt. Silencing the voice of the people is a totalitarian effort to control the narrative.)
X is under attack.
All free speech platforms are under attack.
X is not perfect, nothing is perfect. That said, free speech and censorship should be a topic on everyone’s mind.
My feeling is this latest legacy media fueled Australian vs. X drama will fade.
Time will tell.