The assistant treasurer, Stephen Jones, has described Elon Musk’s X as a “factory for trolls and misinformation” as the Australian government has vowed to fight any legal challenges brought by the company over removal orders related to the video of a stabbing at a Sydney church last week.

X, along with Meta, were ordered by the eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, on Tuesday last week to remove material deemed to depict “gratuitous or offensive violence with a high degree of impact or detail” within 24 hours or potentially face fines.

The material was footage of the alleged stabbing of bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel during mass at the Assyrian Christ the Good Shepherd church in Wakeley last Monday evening.

Meta complied with the request, but on Saturday morning Australian time, X accused the online safety regulator of “global censorship” and said it would challenge the orders in court. The company argued it did not believe the orders were within the scope of Australian law.

“The Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans!” Musk said in a tweet.

On Monday, Jones responded that the government “will fight it”.

“At the same time we’re looking at all of the laws across these areas to ensure that our regulators have the power to do what is necessary to keep our online platforms safe,” he told ABC’s RN Breakfast. “And then Twitter can’t be the place where criminals go, where cranks and crooks go to propagate their messages. At the moment it’s a factory for trolls and misinformation that damages the brand of the company, but it does a lot of damage to social cohesion in the process.”

He said it was “incredibly disappointing” that Musk decided to “make fun” of the lawful direction rather than complying with it.

“Decency can’t be dead. And I think any Australian looking at that would go: ‘Come on.’ Like it’s a pretty simple and straightforward request. It’s a lawful request.”

The minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, Bill Shorten, told the ABC that X was expressing an attitude that it was “above the laws of a nation”.

“It is entirely unexceptional of a nation to say we want to take down some of the most violent and shocking footage, and somehow for them to say we’ve got freedom of speech, but we’re allowed to pollute the metaphorical airwaves with horrible vile and imagery – no one gets to vote for X. They do vote for governments and governments are accountable. So I do think what the eSafety commission has done [is] exactly right. It is about protecting citizens.”

On Sunday the opposition leader, Peter Dutton expressed support for the actions by eSafety and said X saw itself as above the law.

“The Australian law does apply and the fact is that X and Meta and other companies have a presence here. They make literally, or at least turn over, billions of dollars worth of revenue in the Australian economy,” he said. “I think what they’re worried about is the flow on to other markets, if Australia’s laws are upheld.

“That’s all the more reason, I think, for us to take a stance – it’s important for us – but for other democracies as well.”

It is the latest salvo in a battle between X and the eSafety commissioner. Last year the eSafety commissioner commenced legal proceedings over a failure to pay a $610,500 fine for allegedly failing to provide information about how it was tackling online child abuse material. X has also launched court proceedings to challenge the ruling.

The company also claimed last month it would launch a case over a tweet allegedly bullying a trans man that the company withheld from access in Australia after a notice from eSafety. The case has not yet been filed in the federal court.

X was approached for comment.

Separately, in the wake of the propagation of misinformation on the platforms after the stabbings in Wakeley and Bondi Junction last week, the federal government plans to forge ahead with misinformation legislation to empower the Australian Communications and Media Authority to force the platforms to boost efforts to tackle misinformation.

Despite the Coalition last year running a campaign to “bin the bill” as it was drafted, Dutton on Sunday indicated the party was prepared to support misinformation laws.

The communications minister, Michelle Rowland, accused the opposition of flip-flopping.

“Holding social media companies accountable for seriously harmful misinformation and disinformation on their platforms has never been more important,” she said.

“The Coalition has flip-flopped on its position since 2022, putting politics first and running an irresponsible ‘bin the bill’ campaign, instead of working to hold big tech to account and keep Australians safe online. It’s hard to understand if the Coalition is actually serious about tackling this problem.”