BBC left-wing reporter James Clayton held a "hastily arranged, unexpected" interview with Tesla and Twitter CEO Elon Musk late Tuesday night, which was also broadcast live on Twitter Spaces. They covered various topics including the mass lay-offs at the company, misinformation, his work habits, and the issue of so-called hate speech on the platform.
During the interview held at the social media company's HQ in San Francisco,, Clayton echoed criticisms from left-wing media outlets that Musk’s Twitter has allowed hate speech to flourish. However the left-wing reporter was shockingly unprepared to back up his claim.
The world’s richest man demanded Clayton give him one example of hate speech he had personally seen on Twitter. He began by asking him to "describe a hateful thing" he's seen on Twitter, to which the reporter replied, "You know, just content that will solicit a reaction, something that may include something is slightly racist, or slightly sexist -- those kinds of things."
Musk then asked, "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."
He mentioned that, at the very least, his Twitter "feed" has "got slightly more" hate speech on it than prior to Musk owning the platform.
Musk pressed him on the claim, "Can you name one example?" A flailing Clayton admitted, "Honestly, I don’t – I don’t …" At this point, an amused Musk asked, "You can’t name a single example?"
"I’ll tell you why," Clayton claimed, "because I don’t actually use that ‘For You’ feed anymore because I don’t particularly like it."
Musk asked again incredulously, "You said you’ve seen more hateful content but you can’t name a single example, not even one?" The flustered reporter again said, "I’m not sure I’ve used that feed for the last three or four weeks…" The Twitter CEO interrupted him, asking, "Well then how did you see the hateful content?"
Clayton said, "Because I’ve been using Twitter since you’ve taken it over for the last six months." Musk insisted that the reporter give an example or two. "Okay, so then you must have at some point seen the ‘For You’ hateful content and I’m asking for one example. You can’t give a single one."
As Clayton continued to struggle to offer a defense, Musk declared, "Then I say sir, that you don’t know what you’re talking about." The reporter asked "Really?" to which the Twitter owner replied, "Yes, because you can’t give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet, and yet you claimed that the hateful content was high. That’s false."
The left-wing reporter protested. But Musk pointed at him and stated, "You just lied." Clayton then tried to change his initial claims, saying, "No, what I claimed was there are many organizations that say that kind of information is on the rise. Now whether it is on my feed or not …"
Again, Musk demanded another example but the reporter cited other outlets that have described the rise in hate speech. Musk then summed up the whole exchange, saying, "You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd!"
Musk also discussed his experience in the six months since he closed the deal to acquire Twitter. The SpaceX and Tesla CEO admitted he only went through with the acquisition because a judge was about to force him to make the purchase. The social media company's previous management had sued to force the world's richest man to go through with the deal when he threatened to back out.
Asked whether he had any regrets about buying Twitter, Musk said the "pain level has been extremely high, this hasn't been some kind of party."
However he said his time at the helm so far, has "not been boring. It's been quite a rollercoaster."
It has been "really quite a stressful situation over the last several months," the world's richest man added, but said he still felt that buying the company was the right thing to do.
Musk said currently things are going "reasonably well," stating that usage of the site is up and "the site works."
He however revealed the workload means that "I sometimes sleep in the office", he said, adding that he has a spot on a couch in a library "that nobody goes to."
The Twitter CEO promised to change the 'government-funded' tag attached to BBC's account on the social media platform. The British broadcaster has bristled at the tag and had called for a change.
The tag was changed to 'publicly funded' on Wednesday, as Musk promised.
Meanwhile another left-wing media outlet, America's National Public Radio, NPR announced it will stop using Twitter due to the controversial tag.
However critics point out that not only is NPR government-funded, but that the woke far-left outlet is blatantly biased against conservatives, and acts as an arm of the Democrat Party in the America.
During Tuesday's interview, Musk also reiterated his intention to remove the legacy blue check marks from previously verified accounts. The social media company has introduced paid verification included in its Twitter Blue subscription.
After Clayton balked at asking more questions, Musk took questions from listeners for the rest of the over 2 hours Twitter Spaces interview. He also cracked some BBC(or Big Black Cocks) jokes.
WATCH Elon Musk's interview With James Claytoon