Elon Musk Suddenly Says Indonesia’s Neighbors Are Fascist, Here’s

The Root Of The Problem

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Elon Musk has again courted controversy due to his comments. This time, he called the Australian government fascist.

This follows a draft regulation in Australia that threatens fines for social media platforms that fail to prevent the spread of misinformation.

It is known that Musk is the owner of the X platform (formerly Twitter). So far, X has been one of the social media that is often criticized for its large amount of misinformation content.

Moreover, X’s content moderation team has been greatly reduced when the platform announced massive layoffs.

The Australian government announced the planned regulation that would allow internet platforms to be fined 5% of their global revenue.

Furthermore, the regulation requires technology platforms to set concrete policies on their platforms to prevent the spread of misinformation. The concrete policy needs to be approved by the government.

If the platform provider does not comply with the regulation, the government will impose a fine.

Musk, who has so far claimed to be a defender of freedom of speech, responded to the Australian government’s regulation uploaded by netizens on X. He only said one word, namely “fascist”.

Communications Ministry spokeswoman Michelle Rowland stressed that all platforms operating in Australia are required to follow the rules in force in that country.

“This rule increases transparency and accountability of platforms to users and the Australian public,” Rowland said, quoted by Reuters, Friday (13/9/2024).

Australian Government Services Minister Bill Shorten said Musk was applying double standards to the concept of freedom of speech.

“Musk has more positions on freedom of speech than the Kama Sutra. When it comes to business interests, he is a defender of freedom of speech. However, when he doesn’t like it, Musk can immediately silence certain parties,” Shorten said.

This is not the first time Musk has been involved in a dispute with the Australian government. In April, X was tried for defying a cyber regulator’s order to remove several posts on X related to the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese even called Musk an “arrogant billionaire”.

The regulator later dropped the lawsuit against X after a dispute with the federal court. X eventually blocked Australian users from the posts, but refused to remove the content globally.

SOURCE : CNBC INDONESIA