This week on Tuesday, Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter, grilled a BBC reporter in an interview, compelling the reporter to admit that he had no precise examples regarding hate speech, which he claimed to have been increasing on the platform since Musk acquired it in 2022.
As per the British outlet, the “hastily arranged, unexpected” interview between BBC’s journalist James Clayton and Elon Musk featured the two having a contentious argument about the surge in hate speech on the micro-blogging platform.
After Clayton brought up the subject, repeating criticisms from several mainstream news media outlets that Twitter, under Musk, has let hate speech proliferate, Musk insisted that the reporter should mention any instance of hate speech he had personally observed on Twitter, in order to back his claims.
However, Clayton had no instances to present as an example, and as a result, Musk criticized him for it.
Musk started picking Clayton apart by questioning him to “describe a hateful thing” he’s witnessed on Twitter.
The journalist replied:
“You know, just content that will solicit a reaction, something that may include something is slightly racist, or slightly sexist – those kinds of things.”
Musk then asked:
“So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned? Is that what you’re saying?”
Clayton replied:
“No, I’m not saying anything.”
He cited that, at minimum, his Twitter “feed” has “got slightly more” hate speech on it now than before Musk owned the outlet.
Musk asked:
“Can you name one example?”
Clayton confessed:
“Honestly, I don’t – I don’t …”
Musk then asked:
“You can’t name a single example?”
The reporter said:
“I’ll tell you why. because I don’t actually use that ‘For You’ feed anymore because I don’t particularly like it.”
Musk questioned again:
“You said you’ve seen more hateful content but you can’t name a single example, not even one?”
The reporter excused again and stated:
“I’m not sure I’ve used that feed for the last three or four weeks…”
Musk interrupted him and asked:
“Well, then how did you see the hateful content?”
Clayton stated:
“Because I’ve been using Twitter since you’ve taken it over for the last six months.”
Musk insisted on examples and stated:
“Okay, so then you must have at some point seen the ‘For You’ hateful content and I’m asking for one example. You can’t give a single one.”
Clayton continued to bumble to offer one.
Musk then expressed:
“Then I say sir, that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The reporter asked:
“Really?”
Musk replied:
“Yes, because you can’t give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet, and yet you claimed that the hateful content was high. That’s false.”
The BBC reporter protested, yet, Musk indicated his false claims to him as he stated “you just lied.”
After that, the reporter attempted to change his initial assertions and stated:
“No, what I claimed was there are many organizations that say that kind of information is on the rise. Now whether it is on my feed or not …”
Musk redemanded an example, however, the BBC journalist bounced to other platforms that gave rise to hate speech.
Elon Musk summed up the whole debate:
“You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd!”
