Global tech giant Elon Musk has labelled independent Tasmanian Senator Jacqui Lambie an “enemy of the people of Australia”.
Musk’s comments come as a legal battle over extremist footage plays out between his social media platform, X (Twitter) and the Australian government.
Musk is refusing to back down in his defence of free speech by ignoring a court order forcing him to remove the footage of the stabbing terror attack on Assyrian bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel from X.
On Tuesday, Jacqui Lambie said Musk had no “conscience whatsoever” and called for the billionaire to be jailed.
“Elon Musk has no social conscience or conscience whatsoever,” she told the ABC.
“Whatever Elon Musk is on that says that that’s okay to continue to air that [extremist material] is absolutely disgusting behaviour.”
“And quite frankly the bloke should be jailed. And the sooner we can bring rules in or do something about this sort of game playing with our social media, the better of we are going to be.”
“But quite frankly the power that man has because of that platform he’s on, it’s got to stop. It’s absolutely got to stop.”
An X user shared a video of Lambie’s comments with the caption: “This Australian senator should be in jail for censoring free speech”, to which Musk responded: “Absolutely. She is an enemy of the Australian people.”
A two-day court order requiring X to globally block the Wakeley footage expires Wednesday afternoon.
X could be hit with substantial fines if it does not comply.
Musk has previously argued that the footage has already been restricted for Australian viewers since “it is stored only on servers in the USA”.
