Musk's BBC interview takes furious turn as journalist makes 'false' claims about Twitter

A "hastily arranged" BBC interview with Twitter CEO Elon Musk turned bitter after the billionaire rubbished interviewer James Clayton's claims that the social media platform has lately witnessed a surge in hate speech. On Tuesday, Musk snapped back at the reporter for being unable to cite examples of how hate speech has grown rampant on Twitter. 

While discussing Musk's "painful" experiences since his takeover of the company last year, Clayton touched upon the topic of hate speech and the allegations surrounding it, including the company reportedly having inadequate staff to curb the issue. However, this sparked a furious reaction from Musk, who asked: “What hate speech are you talking about? I mean, you use Twitter. Do you see a rise in hate speech? Just a personal anecdote? I don’t." 

As Clayton clarified that he has not witnessed more hate speech himself but is aware of several people who have, the billionaire demanded an example that could support the claim. “Honestly, I don’t … I don’t actually use that feed anymore because I just don’t particularly like it. And actually a lot of people are quite similar. I only look at my followers," the journalist said.

Musk then reiterated: “I’m asking for one example and you can’t give a single one. Then I say, sir, that you don’t know what you are talking about. You cannot give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet. And yet you claimed that hateful content was high. That is false, you just lied.”

“You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd!” he added. 

Musk addresses hate speech issue as Twitter faces pressure to tackle it

The "unexpected" interview also saw Clayton hinting that hate speech is widely prevalent in “content that would solicit a reaction, something that is slightly racist, slightly sexist”. Opposing this, the Twitter boss asked, “So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned? Is that what you’re saying?”

Musk's heated conversation with BBC comes as his company faces growing pressure to tackle issues like hate speech and inappropriate content. Just last week, Germany’s Federal Office of Justice (BFJ) warned that Twitter could face a hefty fine of $55 million for being unable to regulate anti-Semitism, defamation, misinformation, threats and hateful comments.