Anthony Albanese, Australia’s prime minister, criticized Mr. Musk’s decision on Monday in an interview with Sky News. Mr. Musk is an “arrogant billionaire who thinks he is above the law” and has “chosen ego and showing violence over common sense,” Mr. Albanese said.

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.

X, formerly Twitter, is launching a separate TV app to watch videos uploaded by users, in what is another step towards Elon Musk's vision of expanding the platform past its original text-based roots.