Lambie hits back at ‘social media knob’ Elon Musk
Source: Network Ten
Billionaire Elon Musk has lashed crossbench senator Jacqui Lambie as an “enemy of the people” in another round in his ongoing battle with Australia’s eSafety Commissioner.
Lambie hit back on Wednesday, accusing the X owner of having “no social conscience” as the company faced court over its refusal to remove banned footage of the alleged terror attack at a western Sydney church.
X has argued that blocking clips of Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel’s April 15 stabbing to Australian web users is enough to comply with an order by the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, to remove it.
But Inman Grant, backed by a rare united front of Australian politicians, wants the “extreme violent video content” deleted from X’s servers – as other social media platforms have done.
“To be clear, eSafety’s removal notice does not relate to commentary, public debate or other posts about this event – even those which may link to extreme violent content,” a spokesman said on Tuesday.
“It only concerns the video of the violent stabbing attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel.”
The commissioner and X returned to the Federal Court on Wednesday afternoon, ahead of the expiry of a two-day court order compelling X to block the footage internationally.
Representatives for X told the court that Emmanuel had signed an affidavit arguing that video of his alleged stabbing should not be censored.
In a case management hearing, X’s legal representative Marcus Hoyne said the company would need to submit a lot of documents, and that X was approaching barrister Bret Walker SC to see if he would take the case.
Justice Geoffrey Kennett extended the interim injunction ordering the posts be hidden from view until 5pm on May 10, when the court will hold an injunction hearing.
Counsel for the eSafety Commissioner, Christopher Tran, said the current order had not been complied with.
Overnight, Musk took his fight up to Lambie, who on Tuesday called him a “social media knob” and urged Australians to follow her in deleting their X accounts.
In a comment on a tweet suggesting that Lambie should be jailed for “censoring free speech”, Musk wrote: “Absolutely. She is an enemy of the people of Australia.”
Musk has also compared Inman Grant to a Communist authority, saying permitting her powers to extend beyond Australia’s borders could allow a single country to control the entire internet.
“We have already censored the content in question for Australia, pending legal appeal, and it is stored only on servers in the USA,” he posted to X on Tuesday morning.
Lambie hit back at Musk on Wednesday afternoon – via her Instagram account.
“Elon Musk should put his big boy pants on and do the right thing – but he won’t because he has no social conscience,” she wrote on a photo of herself dressed in camouflage fatigues and with her face covered in dark make-up.
-with AAP