Comments On PM Albanese's Post, Elon Musk Criticizes Australian Law Bans Social Media For Children Under 16

UNSPLASH/Alexander Shatov ILLUSTRATION

US billionaire Elon Musk, who is also the owner of social media platform X, criticized Australia's proposed law banning social media for children under 16 and fines for social media platforms of up to USD 49.5 million (USD 32 million) for companies for systemic violations.

The Australian government introduced the bill in parliament on Thursday, November 21.

Australia plans to try an age verification system to impose an age limit on social media, which is one of the toughest controls implemented by any country to date.

"This seems to be a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians," Musk said in reply to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's post on the bill.

Several countries have pledged to limit the use of social media by children through the law.

But Australia's policy could be one of the strictest policies because there are no exceptions for parental consent and pre-existing accounts.

France last year proposed banning the use of social media for children under 15 but still allowing parental permission, while the US for decades has required technology companies to seek parental permission to access child data under 13 years of age.

Musk had previously clashed with Australia's center-left Labor Party government over his social media policy and called it a "fascist" government over the misinformation laws it implements.

In April, X went to Australian courts to challenge a cyber regulator's order over the abolition of several posts about the stabbing of a bishop in Sydney, prompting Albanese to refer to Musk as an "insurd billionaire".