Social networks have “a social responsibility” to assume. This is the terse response that Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese gave to Elon Musk this Saturday, September 14. “If Musk doesn’t understand that, that says more about him than it does about my government,” he continued, while last Thursday, the owner of X had called his government “fascist” when commenting on a publication relating to a text presented during the day.
The latter includes a series of measures that would force social networks to assume greater responsibility for the content of their platforms, including a ban on under-16s and fines on their annual turnover in the event of deliberately false publications.
In April, Elon Musk had already 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, commissioner of eSafety and former employee of Twitter, had said that Elon Musk’s acquisition of the network coincided with an increase in “toxicity and hate” on the platform. The Australian courts finally decided to lift the injunction in May, a decision Elon Musk celebrated as a victory for free expression.
X’s suspension in Brazil
The billionaire also recently ran into trouble with the courts in Brazil, where Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered “the immediate suspension” of X throughout the country in early September. The reason: X’s failure to suspend accounts accused of spreading false information on Fabio Alvarez Shor, a senior federal police officer who is leading several fraud investigations against former President Jair Bolsonaro, as well as X’s refusal to appoint a legal representative in Brazil. In addition to shutting down the platform, the judge froze the assets of X and Starlink, a satellite internet provider, to ensure payment of fines imposed on the social network.
Since April and the sending of the first blocking requests, Alexandre de Moraes, who himself has more than a million subscribers on X, has been the target of criticism and insults from Elon Musk. The owner of the social network has already publicly called him an “evil dictator disguised as a judge”, a “criminal of the worst kind”, or a “tyrant whose [l’actuel président] Lula is the poodle.”
In Brazil, some 22 million people use the social network, making the country the largest market in Latin America. The suspension of X has fueled debates about freedom of expression and sparked protests, including those called by former President Jair Bolsonaro, who called Alexandre de Moraes a “dictator.” Internet users who connect to the network using a virtual private network (VPN) are liable to a fine of 50,000 reais (8,000 euros).