Elon Musk calls out BBC reporter over Twitter hate speech allegations

04/17/2023 / By Ramon Tomey

Twitter CEO Elon Musk called out a reporter from the BBC over the latter’s allegations of hate speech on the social media platform.

During an April 11 interview, BBC North America tech journalist James Clayton asked Musk about the rise of hate speech on Twitter. “We’ve spoken to people very recently who were involved in moderation and they just say there are not enough people to police this stuff, particularly around hate speech in the company,” the tech journalist said.

Musk urged Clayton to elaborate on what he meant by hate speech. He asked the BBC reporter to clarify if hate speech pertains to “just content [he doesn’t] like, and pushed Clayton to “describe a hateful thing” he saw on Twitter. The journalist gave a rather vague answer, defining hate speech as “content [that] will solicit a reaction that may include something slightly racist or sexist.”

“I’m just trying to understand what you mean by hateful content. I’m asking for specific examples,” the Twitter CEO remarked. “And you just said that something is ‘slightly sexist,’ that’s hateful content. So does that mean that it should be banned?”

Clayton declined to answer directly, instead asserting that his Twitter feed has “slightly more hateful content.” Further pressing by Musk finally made the journalist admit that he no longer uses the For You feed on Twitter.

“You said you’ve seen more hateful content, but you can’t name a single example – not even one. Then I say, sir, that you don’t know what you are talking about,” Musk remarked. “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; you just lied.”

Musk also eviscerates claims of COVID misinfo

During the April 11 interview, the Tesla and SpaceX founder did not only eviscerate claims of hate speech put forward by Clayton. The “Chief Twit” also debunked claims of misinformation regarding the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) prevalent on Twitter.

The BBC reporter first asked why Musk dialed down the censorship of opinions regarding COVID-19 on the social media platform. “COVID is no longer an issue,” replied the Twitter CEO. The site removed warning labels on COVID-related tweets in November of last year.

Musk then turned the tables on Clayton, questioning him whether the BBC takes responsibility for spreading its own version of “misinformation” about COVID-19. He asked the journalist: “Who is to say something is misinformation? Is it the BBC? What about [its] misinformation about COVID?”

“Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and side effects of vaccinations, and not reporting on that at all? What about the fact that the BBC was put under pressure by the British government to change the editorial policy? Were you aware of that?” (Related: BBC and other “Ministry of Truth” propaganda outlets are directly responsible for 20 million excess deaths caused by covid “vaccines.”)

Clayton dodged the Twitter’s CEO question, stating that he was not a representative of the BBC‘s editorial department. The journalist also reminded Musk that the interview wasn’t supposed to be about the British national broadcaster.

Outside of the exchanges regarding hate speech and COVID-19 misinformation, Clayton brought up the issue of layoffs at the San Francisco-based Big Tech firm. He asked why the affected employees were not notified of their termination, and if Musk regretted how they were sacked. In reply, Musk said the laid-off employees received severance pay.

Visit ElonMuskWatch.com for more stories about the Twitter CEO.

Watch Elon Musk turn the tables on James Clayton regarding hate speech on Twitter below.

This video is from the Puretrauma357 channel on Brighteon.com.