This battle was never about the removal of a single violent video for Elon Musk – it was always going to turn into a glib culture war fought with 4chan-style memes and late-night missives featuring Musk as the free speech antihero fighting Woke Governments of the World. At least, that is how he wishes to portray it to his more than 180 million followers.
Musk on Tuesday responded to an interim court order from Australia’s eSafety Commission requesting that X hide graphic and distressing videos of the recent Sydney stabbing within 24 hours with a Wizard of Oz meme: it’s all shits and giggles over at X. In further posts, he took aim at the eSafety commissioner, claiming she wants “authority over all countries on Earth”, after labelling her a “Commissar” for requesting the removal of the video in the first place, which depicted an attack that the NSW police have since classified as a terrorist incident.
