Twitter CEO and African-American billionaire Elon Musk yesterday sat down with BBC “journalist” James Clayton for an interview, where the two had a now-viral argument over Twitter’s alleged rise in “hateful content,” as well as Twitter’s COVID “misinformation” policy changes.
During their conversation, Clayton, without any evidence to back himself up, claimed that Musk’s acquisition of the company has resulted in “a rise in hateful content.”
“Content you don’t like or hateful, describe a hateful thing?” Musk asked.
Clayton replied, “I mean you know just content that will elicit a reaction, something I mean something that is slightly racist or slightly sexist, those kinds of things.”
“So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned?” Musk retorted. “No, I’m not saying anything,” said Clayton.
WATCH: The moment @elonmusk confronts @BBC reporter @JamesClayton5 for not being able to provide a single example of hate speech he has witnessed on Twitter.
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Elon also points out the BBC’s double standards regarding Covid misinformation. pic.twitter.com/EBRCcOrTP4— Censored Men (@CensoredMen) April 12, 2023
“Well you’ve asked me whether my feed, whether it’s got less or more, yes it’s got slightly more,” Clayton claimed, again, without any evidence.
“I’m asking for examples. Can you name one example?” Musk said. “Honestly I honestly–” Clayton began before Musk interjected: “Can you name a single example?”
“I’ll tell you why,” the BBC wordsmith said. “Because I don’t actually use that feed anymore because I don’t particularly like it. Actually, a lot of people are quite similar.”
At this point, the journalist cited his lack of interest in Twitter’s “For You” feed as his reason for being unable to cite a single example of hate speech. Musk, unimpressed, ultimately accused the reporter of lying.
Musk replied, “Wait a second, you said you’ve seen more hateful content, but you can’t name a single example, not even one.”
“I’m not sure I used that feed for the last three or four weeks,” Clayton said. “Then how did you see the hateful content?” said Musk.
“Because I’ve been using Twitter since you’ve taken over for the last six months,” Clayton said. “Okay so then you must of at some point seen hateful content, I’m asking for one example. And you can’t give a single one,” Musk continued.
BREAKING: @ElonMusk shut down this pro-censorship BBC reporter and left him scrambling on how to justify his own questions on misinformation and the supposed rise in hate speech.
Listen till the end. pic.twitter.com/J7L6eKtKJK
— TexasLindsay™ (@TexasLindsay_) April 12, 2023
“And I’m saying I’ve–” Clayton began before Musk again interjected: “They I’m saying you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Really!?” Clayton cried. “Yes, because you can’t give a single example of hateful content not even one tweet, and yet you’ve claimed the hateful content was high. That’s a false,” Musk explained.
“No,” replied Clayton. “You just lied,” Musk said.
Eventually, Clayton abruptly left the interview, leaving Musk alone to field questions from the audience.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @whiteaf5.
