SYDNEY (Reuters) - Elon Musk's social media platform X defended publishing posts showing a bishop in Australia being stabbed during a sermon as "part of public discussion", rejecting a regulator's order to take down the content on grounds it is offensive and violent.

In one camp is a tech billionaire with more than 181 million followers on his own social network. In the other, political leaders representing a country of just 26 million people.

Musk argues that agreeing to hide footage of the stabbing of a bishop from users worldwide would risk allowing any country to control the entire internet.

Australia’s attempts to ban a graphic video of a stabbing in a church has turned into a global battle between the Canberra government and Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the social media platform X.

Australia’s officials have taken a contentious stance, targeting Elon Musk, owner of Twitter/X, for resisting what he perceives as global content censorship on social media. The issue stemmed from posts concerning the attack on Bishop Mar Mari Emanuel in Sydney,

Sky News host Rita Panahi says Jacqui Lambie wants to “throw the richest man in jail and throw away the key”. Senator Jacqui Lambie has torched billionaire Elon Musk as a “social media knob” with “no conscience” after the X owner refused the Australian government’s request to remove graphic content.