Australia is taking on ‘arrogant billionaire’ Elon Musk over violent images on X

In one camp is a tech billionaire with more than 181 million followers on his own social network. In the other, political leaders representing a country of just 26 million people.

Insults have been hurled for days by both sides in an increasingly bare-knuckled fight between X owner Elon Musk and the Australian government that’s playing out both online and in the Federal Court.

At issue is the right of X to publish a video showing the moment a 16-year-old allegedly stabbed a bishop in an Orthodox Christian Church in Sydney earlier this month.

Australian authorities say the clips threw fuel on a riot that erupted outside the church after the attack and shouldn’t be available for general viewing on a global platform, where it could be used to radicalize potential offenders.

The country’s e-safety commissioner ordered social media giants to take it down.

Most complied, but X didn’t go far enough, according to the commissioner.

Australia wants X to remove the video completely, not just hide it from Australian users who could circumvent a local ban by using virtual private networks.