iTWire - Stabbing videos: Elon Musk 'a narcissistic cowboy', says Greens senator

Monday, 22 April 2024 16:17

Stabbing videos: Elon Musk 'a narcissistic cowboy', says Greens senator Featured

By Sam Varghese

Senator Sarah-Hanson Young says Elon Musk lacks the guts to front up to Parliament.

Supplied

The owner of X, Elon Musk, has been described as a "narcissistic cowboy" who thinks he can ignore the Australian Parliament, following his decision to go to court over videos of a Sydney stabbing incident that he was asked to take down.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Greens spokesperson for communications, told the media in Canberra on Monday: "The online tech thugs are operating as if it's the Wild West.

“Elon Musk should front up to the Australian people. He should front up here to Parliament and explain why his company doesn't have a social conscience and isn’t doing the right thing. I don't think he has the guts to do it, frankly."

X, formerly known as Twitter, said on Saturday it would not obey an order from the Australian eSafety commission to take down videos of the stabbing attack, saying it does not violate its [X's] rules on violent content.

Senator Hanson-Young said: “Elon Musk is a narcissistic cowboy who thinks he can give the middle finger to the Australian Government, because for too long we've had little to no regulation. We don't tax these guys. And they've been able to do whatever they want for far too long. It's got to come to an end.

“We need stronger laws that deal with the business model of these big tech corporations.

“It's not users who made this horrendous footage go viral over the last week. It's the algorithms that these companies have kept secret. The business model of these social media giants needs to be scrutinised.

“We need better regulation. We need to tax them properly. And we need transparency in how they use their algorithms and the data of everyday users.”

Facebook has taken a more low-key approach to requests from the eSafety Commission.

In a related development, a senior journalist said the calls to take down the stabbing videos were unfair in the face of the toleration for poor news standards by the mainstream media.

Bernard Keane, the politics editor for the website Crikey, said: "Social media can be blamed for many ills of society. But the corporate media — and their obsession with 'if it bleeds it leads' news non-standards — pretending they get to sit in judgment is laughable."

He said the corporate media savaging Musk for refusing to comply with eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s view "that she should determine what anyone in the world can see online is deeply hypocritical".

"And it’s motivated not by a prime concern for the 'protection' of Australians but by the realisation social media is destroying them."

Keane had harsh words for Inman Grant, saying: "The Scott Morrison-appointed Internet censor, Julie Inman Grant, said about the Wakeley footage that 'I am not satisfied enough is being done to protect Australians from this most extreme and gratuitous violent material circulating online'.

"Inman Grant, it should be noted, is a strong advocate of a draconian online 'papers please' scheme that would force people to produce identity documents in order to access adult content — a scheme also endorsed yesterday [Sunday] by [Opposition leader Peter] Dutton.

"But the logic of Inman Grant’s position — that footage of an unsuccessful stabbing attempt must be taken down to 'protect' Australians — surely means that even relatively innocuous footage of violence should be removed."

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