Twitter CEO Elon Musk shot down a BBC reporter — at one point directly accusing him of lying — in a surprise interview with the media organization..The British broadcaster aired a live 90-minute interview from the company’s headquarters in California on April 12, streamed live on its news channel and Twitter Spaces..Organized only hours before, the interview with Musk by North American correspondent James Clayton, which came amid a dispute between the BBC and Twitter over the former’s “government funded media” label, covered a range of topics including the business magnate’s takeover of Twitter, hate speech on the platform, and COVID-19 misinformation..The latter two points proved to be something of a sticking point, with a viral clip, shared by Musk himself, proving popular on the platform..A third of the way into the interview, Clayton referenced previous discussions with Twitter employees who claimed there were not enough people to moderate hate speech..“What hate speech are you talking about? I mean, you use Twitter?” replied Musk..“Do you see a rise in hate speech? Just your personal anecdote, do you? I don’t.”.Clayton said he had seen a rise in hateful content in the For You feed, prompting Musk to ask him to provide an example..“You said you’ve seen more hateful content, but you can’t name a single example. Not even one,” said Musk..“Then I say, sir, that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”.After Clayton replied “really?” Musk added: “Yes. Because you can’t give 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.”.Clayton swiftly moved the conversation on to COVID-19 misinformation, a policy which has been changed under Musk..“I’m literally asking you about… You changed the labels, the COVID-19 misinformation labels. There used to be a policy and then it disappears. Why do that?” asked Clayton..“Well, COVID is no longer an issue,” Musk responded..“Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and side effects of vaccinations, and not reporting on that at all?”.“And what about the fact the BBC was put under pressure by the British government to change its editorial policy? Are you aware of that?”.Clayton responded he was not “representative of the BBC’s editorial policy” before moving on the interview.
