Elon Musk doubles down on ‘fascist’ insult as war of words escalates with Anthony Albanese

Billionaire Elon Musk has hit back at the Australian Prime Minister, continuing to use the label “fascist” in reference to a planned campaign against disinformation.

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman also criticised the federal government’s anti-disinformation bill on Sunday.

With the changes, Labor aims to strengthen the communications regulator’s powers to monitor and regulate the content of digital platforms.

Social media companies could be fined up to five percent of their annual turnover under proposed Commonwealth legislation.

Musk, owner of the social media platform X, responded to a post about the Australian measures with the word “fascists”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said social media companies have a social responsibility.

“If Musk doesn’t understand that, it says more about him than it does about my administration,” he said Saturday.

Over the weekend, the billionaire reiterated his comments in another post, captioned, “Far-left fascists love censorship.”

Musk took on Anthony Albanese as the war of words between the two men intensified

Stephen Jones, assistant finance minister, defended the laws, saying they were about “sovereignty”.

“The Australian government, like every other democratic country in the world, claims its right to ensure the safety of Australians,” he said.

Mr. Coleman criticized the federal government’s disinformation bill, but avoided using the term “fascist.”

“I wouldn’t use those words, I would say downright incompetent, I would say contempt for freedom of speech,” he told Sky News.

Mr Coleman said there were many “problems” with the bill and he feared the Communications Minister could personally order an inquiry into disinformation and public hearings.

Another problem was that only a few people could be guilty of spreading ‘misinformation’.

“If you are an academic, something you say cannot in principle be misinformation, but if you are an average Australian and you disagree with an academic, it could be misinformation,” Coleman said.

Mr Albanese said Mr Musk needed to understand that his platform had a “social responsibility”

He noted that this also included opinions, with the emphasis on the expert, “but experts are always right.”

Mr Coleman also took the opportunity to criticise the Greens.

“One of the forms of harm is that something is not allowed, something that can cause immediate damage to the economy or the stock market. That is really true of every economic policy that the Greens have ever announced,” he said.