Twitter owner Elon Musk has accused the BBC of spreading misinformation about face masks and covering up the side effects of coronavirus vaccinations.
The billionaire tycoon, speaking to a BBC journalist, also repeated claims that the UK Government put the corporation under pressure to change its editorial policy.
He did not expand on either allegation during the interview at the company's San Francisco offices which saw him asked how Twitter deals with Covid misinformation.
Mr Musk was in a combative mood during the chat, and also accused his interviewer James Clayton of lying after he claimed hate speech on Twitter was increasing.
Last November, Twitter rolled back a policy aimed at tackling Covid misinformation - while concerns were raised over the dismissal of some content moderation staff.
Measures it brought in when the crisis began in 2020 included labels and warning messages on tweets with disputed information about the crisis and a framework to have users remove tweets that advanced harmfully false claims related to vaccines.
James Clayton: 'Covid misinformation, you've changed the Covid misinformation.'
Elon Musk: 'Has BBC changed its Covid misinformation?'
Mr Clayton: 'The BBC does not set the rules on Twitter, so I'm asking you.
Mr Musk: 'No I'm talking about the BBC's misinformation about Covid.'
Mr Clayton: I'm literally asking you, you changed the labels, the Covid misinformation labels. There used to be a policy, then it disappeared. Why do that?'
Mr Musk: 'Well, Covid is no longer an issue. Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and the side effects of vaccinations and not reporting on that at all? And what about the fact that the BBC was put under pressure by the British Government to change editorial policy, are you aware of that?'
Mr Clayton: 'This is not an interview about the BBC.
Mr Musk: 'Oh you thought it wasn't?'
Mr Clayton: 'I see now why you've done Twitter Spaces. I'm not a representative of the BBC's editorial policy - I want to make that clear.'
During yesterday's interview, Mr Clayton - the BBC's North America tech reporter - said: 'Covid misinformation, you've changed the Covid misinformation.'
But Mr Musk then replied: 'Has BBC changed its Covid misinformation?' Mr Clayton continued: 'The BBC does not set the rules on Twitter, so I'm asking you.'
And Mr Musk then said: 'No I'm talking about the BBC's misinformation about Covid.' However, Mr Clayton replied: 'I'm literally asking you, you changed the labels, the Covid misinformation labels. There used to be a policy, then it disappeared. Why do that?'
Mr Musk then continued: 'Well, Covid is no longer an issue. Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and the side effects of vaccinations and not reporting on that at all?
'And what about the fact that the BBC was put under pressure by the British Government to change editorial policy, are you aware of that?'
But Mr Clayton said: 'This is not an interview about the BBC.' And Mr Musk added: 'Oh you thought it wasn't?'
Mr Clayton then stated: 'I see now why you've done Twitter Spaces. I'm not a representative of the BBC's editorial policy - I want to make that clear.'
MailOnline has contacted the BBC for comment over Mr Musk's claims.
Mr Musk may have been referring to a Guardian article last month which claimed BBC editors asked journalists to avoid using the word 'lockdown' in reports at the start of the pandemic.
The story, based on leaked email and WhatsApp messages shown to the newspaper, also claimed reporters were urged to be more critical of Labour following pressure from Downing Street.
But, commenting on the article, the BBC insisted it 'makes its own independent editorial decisions and none of these messages show otherwise'.
Elon Musk has defended Twitter’s decision to terminate a policy where posts on the platform would be accompanied by a “misleading information” warning label if the content related to COVID-19, saying the pandemic “is no longer an issue.”
The microblogging service, which was taken over by the billionaire industrialist last year, said in a report that, effective Nov. 23, 2022, Twitter is “no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy.”
Musk commented on the matter during an interview with BBC reporter James Clayton that was broadcasted on April 11. In the confrontational interview, Musk pivoted Clayton’s question when the journalist asked the Tesla executive about the platform’s warning labels for false and misleading tweets related to COVID-19.
“Has the BBC changed its COVID misinformation?” Musk reacted fiercely to the reporter’s question.
In response, Clayton said that he was asking Musk about Twitter’s policies as the interviewer stressed that the discussion is about the social media company, not about the broadcasting corporation.
Musk has been a longtime critic of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, lockdowns, as well as other measures enforced by the government. In May 2020, the 51-year-old sent Tesla employees back to work at the automaker’s plant in California in defiance of local shelter-in-place orders, which he described as “forcible imprisoning.”
“Tesla is restarting production today against Alameda County rules. I will be on the line with everyone else. If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me,” Musk said in a post on Twitter at the time.
During an interview with TIME in December 2021, Musk said he and his eligible children are vaccinated against COVID-19 and that “the science is unequivocal,” but he also stressed that he is against COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
Twitter’s policy, which was introduced to curb the spread of “harmful misinformation” related to the pandemic, resulted in nearly 100,000 pieces of content being removed from the platform and led to more than 11,000 account suspensions between January 2020 and September 2022.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has vowed to dial back the platform’s censorship policies which many conservatives have alleged are discriminatory and amount to suppression of free speech. At the same time, Musk pledged that he would not allow Twitter to become a “free-for-all hellscape” where anything could be said, “with no consequences.”
Doctors Sound the Alarm
Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the first COVID-19 vaccines in late 2020, governments around the world and much of the media have insisted that the medicines developed in record time are “safe and effective.”
However, numerous studies and medical experts have disagreed with the government’s official messaging, suggesting COVID-19 vaccines can lead to an excess risk of spike protein-induced diseases.
Dr. Joseph Fraiman, an emergency physician based in Louisiana and the lead author of a peer-reviewed study that reexamined the original Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials for the COVID-19 vaccines, told the National Citizen’s Inquiry (NCI) on March 17 that the vaccines have been associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest in about one in every 565 people.
“That is quite a high number of serious adverse effects from a vaccine. We typically have withdrawn vaccines for one in 10,000,” said Fraiman, who spoke virtually at the event on the second day of the hearing held in Canada.
The authors found that the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines were, respectively, associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest of 10.1 and 15.1 per 10,000 vaccinated over placebo baselines of 17.6 and 42.2. Combined, the mRNA vaccines were associated with an excess risk of serious adverse events of special interest in 12.5 per 10,000 vaccinated, or one in 565.
German Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, meanwhile, said last month that adverse reactions can occur at a rate of “one in 10,000 [doses],” adding that COVID-19 vaccines have caused “severe disabilities” to German citizens. However, the country’s top health official also noted that he believes the benefits still outweigh the risks, saying: “It’s not like [vaccine] injury is common.”
“I’ve always been aware of the numbers and they’ve remained relatively stable … one in 10,000 [are injured],” Lauterbach said, citing official data (pdf) from the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut that was released in December 2022. It has to be noted that the health minister said COVID-19 vaccines can cause serious injury in one in every 10,000 doses, not people.
No comments:
Post a Comment