The eSafety Commissioner could use an extraordinary power to force telcos to block access to social media site X, formerly Twitter, as the company cops scorn from politicians for fighting an order to take down graphic material.

The commissioner has issued an edict to the social media giant to remove graphic content of a recent stabbing attack in Sydney.

The company said it complied with the order temporarily while it fights it in court but argued a global takedown order violates the principle of free speech – a point which has been hammered home by billionaire owner Elon Musk. 

The jurisdiction of the commissioner has also been brought into question, with X disputing that an Australian authority can dictate what overseas users access.

But completely removing the posts instead of just geoblocking them for Australian users may be necessary to comply with Australian law, media expert Dr Rob Nicholls said.

“Our courts can only enforce in respect of Australia but the way that the law is written, effectively, there is an expectation of (a) takedown,” he told AAP.

A failure to comply with a court’s ruling to remove posts could see X fined almost $800,000 a day and executives be held in contempt of court, he said.

“They’re having now to deal with the consequences of failing to have a business model that can cope with the law in the jurisdictions in which they operate,” Dr Nicholls said.

“That’s a big problem.”

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, took down posts after receiving a similar order from the commissioner as they valued advertising revenue while Mr Musk was more zealous about maintaining open speech, Dr Nicholls said.

“He has decided that free speech under the First Amendment and the US Constitution is more important to his global business model than compliance with the law in the jurisdictions in which it operates,” he said.

Mr Musk has drawn the ire of Australian politicians who want graphic material of the stabbing removed, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese leading the charge after he branded the billionaire as “arrogant”.

“We’ll do what’s necessary to take on this arrogant billionaire who thinks he’s above the law, but also above common decency,” he told ABC television on Monday.

“The idea that someone would go to court for the right to put up violent content on a platform shows how out of touch Mr Musk is.”

While supporting free speech, Mr Musk was “dead wrong” on the stance about terror content, Liberal frontbencher Simon Birmingham said, while independent senator Jacqui Lambie went further and called him a “social media knob”.

“He is harmful – what he’s doing to kids out there and what he’s doing to adults and the crap he puts out there on X … has gone far enough,” she said.

Asked whether the commissioner could be granted stronger powers or if access to X in Australia should be cut, the prime minister said the government was looking at what measures could be taken. 

“No one wants censorship here – what we want, though, is the application of a bit of common sense so you don’t show and propagate violence online,” Mr Albanese said.

“Surely that’s not too much to ask.”

The opposition has backed tougher laws to crackdown on graphic content being shared online.

While the eSafety Commissioner already had the power to essentially block the social media site in Australia by getting telcos to deny access, it hadn’t shown any signs of going down that path yet, Dr Nicholls said.

Such a block wouldn’t be unprecedented after telcos proactively shut down access to sites that disseminated video of the Christchurch massacre in 2019.

By Dominic Giannini in Canberra