Tech billionaire Elon Musk, the owner of social media platform X, criticized proposed legislation in Australia that aims to ban social media for children under 16.

An Australian Cabinet minister has rejected X Corp. owner Elon Musk’s allegation that the government intends to control all Australians' access to the internet through legislation that would ban young children from social media.

Australia PM Anthony Albanese said on Monday that social media firms would be required to destroy personal data used to verify the ages of users.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk criticized Australia’s proposed legislation to ban social media access for children under 16, calling it “a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.

"Our job is to put in place the necessary protection for kids online," Australia's treasurer said after the billionaire criticised its new social media age limit bill. View on euronews

Billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X (formerly Twitter), has criticised Australia’s newly proposed legislation to ban social media access for children under 16. The bill, introduced in parliament on Thursday, also proposes fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$32 million) for social media companies that fail to comply with systemic safety requirements.

U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, owner of social media platform X, has criticised Australia's proposed law to ban social media for children under 16 and fine social media platforms of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for companies for systemic breaches.