Twitter CEO Elon Musk blasted a BBC reporter during Tuesday’s “hastily arranged” interview when the journalist failed to cite specific examples of hate speech flourishing on the social media platform.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk accused a BBC journalist of lying when the latter failed to cite examples of hate speech being allowed on the social media platform.
In a wide-ranging interview, the BBC journalist asked Mr Musk how he planned to tackle incidents of hate speech being reported on Twitter amid claims of staff shortage to police hateful content. When Mr Musk asked the journalist to cite some examples of hate speech on Twitter, he declined to do so.
"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," Mr Musk said.
Elon Musk tell bbc reporter:"You Just Lied" pic.twitter.com/cZvnQGGnVi
— Ahmad Hanafiah (@Ahmadhanafiah) April 13, 2023
"Honestly, I don't. I don't actually use that feed anymore because I just don't particularly like it," said the journalist on Twitter's 'For You' feature. "And actually a lot of people are quite similar. I only look at my followers."
*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," Mr Musk replied.
Twitter recently labelled the BBC as a "government-funded media", leading to a sharp reaction from the British public broadcaster.
"The BBC is, and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee," a statement from the BBC read.
On Wednesday, Mr Musk said on Twitter Spaces, that he did not know "what exactly happened" when content related to a BBC documentary critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi was taken down from the microblogging site.
"I am not aware of this particular situation... don't know what exactly happened with some content situation in India," Mr Musk said. "The rules in India for what can appear on social media are quite strict and we can't go beyond the laws of the country."
Clayton went on to point the finger at Musk, with the journalist claiming that he said others have reported seeing a rise in hate speech, not that he saw it himself on his Twitter feed.
Musk snapped back, saying, “You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd!”
"If we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we will comply with the laws..." Mr Musk said.
During the interview, Clayton suggested that the rise in hate speech was attributed to “content that would solicit a reaction, something that is slightly racist, slightly sexist.”
The Chief Twit also challenged that characterization, asking: “So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned? Is that what you’re saying?”
Clayton replied: “No, I’m not saying anything.”
The BBC did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
The allegedly “unexpected” interview with the British outlet comes as Twitter faces mounting pressure overseas to crack down on hate speech and illegal content on the platform.
Earlier this year, the European Union warned Twitter that it must hire more content moderation staff to comply with its Digital Services Act.
And last week, Germany’s Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) threatened the company with a $55 million fine for failing to adequately deal with illegal content, including hate speech, personal threats, defamation and anti-Semitism.
“The BfJ has sufficient indications that [Twitter] has violated the legal obligation to deal with complaints about illegal content and that this is a systemic failure in the complaint management of the provider, which is subject to a fine,” the agency said.
Twitter is also facing a lawsuit from the HateAid and the European Union of Jewish Students human rights group, which allege that the company has failed to remove six posts that trivialize or deny the Holocaust.
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