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