On Tuesday, BBC North America technology reporter James Clayton conducted an impromptu interview with Musk live on Twitter Spaces.
Asked to define “hateful content,” Clayton first suggested that it may include content that is “slightly racist or slightly sexist,” but then backed off when asked to confirm his insinuation.
Musk asked Clayton to present one example of hateful content on Twitter, prompting the BBC reporter to admit that he couldn’t. Clayton claimed that he stopped using Twitter because of the hateful content he saw on it – and that he couldn’t cite an example of hateful content on Twitter because he stopped using it.
“You said you’ve seen more hateful content but you can’t name a single example, not even one,” Musk said. “I say sir that you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Clayton, then, tried to deny that he was the one making the accusation:
“No, what I claimed was there are many organizations that say that that kind of information is on the rise.”
“The Strategic Dialogue Institute in the UK, they will say that,” Clayton said, when Musk asked for an example of the “many organizations.”
“Look, people will say all sorts of nonsense. I’m literally asking for a single example and you can’t name one,” Musk responded, before Clayton switched to another topic.