Australia is gearing up for a fight with Elon Musk and American social media giants over allegations they failed to move fast enough to police graphic content and misinformation during two violent attacks in Sydney over the past 10 days.

Three government ministers over the past 24 hours have flagged a potential move to bring in tougher laws including a mandatory code of conduct for social media companies that operate in Australia. Musk is the owner of X, formerly Twitter, and has pushed back.