OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A journalist for the British Broadcasting Company, BBC, insisted that Twitter allows hate speech on its platform and the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, quickly smacked him back into place.
“We’ve spoken to people very recently who were involved in moderation and they just say there are not enough people to police this stuff, particularly around hate speech in the company,” BBC U.S. Tech reporter James Clayton said to Musk in an interview that was shown on Tuesday. “Is that something that you want to address?”
“What hate speech are you talking about? I mean, you use Twitter,” Musk said. “Do you see a rise in hate speech? Just a personal anecdote … I don’t.”
Musk asked the reporter to “describe a hateful thing” but the reporter did not have an example as he said, “You know, just content that will solicit a reaction, something that may include something is slightly racist, or slightly sexist – those kinds of things.”
Fox News reported:
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.
Pressing him on it, Musk asked, “Can you name one example?” A flustered Clayton admitted, “Honestly, I don’t – I don’t …” At this point, Musk became amused and asked, “You can’t name a single example?”
“I’ll tell you why,” the reporter said, “because I don’t actually use that ‘For You’ feed anymore because I don’t particularly like it.”
“You said you’ve seen more hateful content but you can’t name a single example, not even one?” Musk hit back.
“I’m not sure I’ve used that feed for the last three or four weeks…” the Twitter CEO said. “Well then how did you see the hateful content?”
“Because I’ve been using Twitter since you’ve taken it over for the last six months,” the reporter said.
“Okay, so then you must have at some point seen the ‘For You’ hateful content and I’m asking for one,” Musk said.
But the reporter still could not give an example of any hateful content he has seen.
“Then I say sir, that you don’t know what you’re talking about,” Musks aid to which the reporter responded, “Really?”
“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,” Musk said.
“You just lied,” Musk said as the reporter continued to explain himself, “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 …”
“You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd!” the CEO said.
BBC ‘journalism’ at its finest 🤦🏻♂️
BBC Journo: “There’s been a rise in hatful content on Twitter.”@elonmusk: “Give me an example.”
Journo: “I can’t.”
Musk: “You just lied.” pic.twitter.com/wOfzn5vGfJ— Darren Grimes (@darrengrimes_) April 12, 2023
Twitter Inc. has merged into Elon Musk’s X corporation and some now believe that Twitter is “dead.”
“A filing at Southern District of Florida shows that Twitter Inc has merged with X Corp and now Twitter no longer exists. X Corp’s parent company is X Holding Corps. The new phase of Twitter will be X Corp. Is this the start of the everything app?” Mario Nawfal said on Twitter.
On Monday, Musk tweeted the single letter “X,” another hint that the CEO intends to create an “everything app,” which he hinted at before he became the owner of the company.
“Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app,” he said in a tweet before he became the owner of the company.
Business Insider reported:
The Twitter chief developed an affinity for the letter back in the 1990s, founding the company “X.com” which later became PayPal. Musk then repurchased the domain name in 2017, and now appears to be starting to put together his new scheme.
That seems to include a payment service, as Twitter applied for regulatory licenses after his takeover, per the Financial Times. He previously suggested he could be inspired by the Chinese app WeChat, which includes banking, ride-sharing services, and video chatting.
#BREAKING: Twitter is Dead
A filing at Southern District of Florida shows that Twitter Inc has merged with X Corp and now Twitter no longer exists.
X Corp’s parent company is X Holding Corps.
The new phase of Twitter will be X Corp.
Is this the start of the everything app? pic.twitter.com/vposdXKbGV
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) April 11, 2023
Buying Twitter is an accelerant to creating X, the everything app
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 4, 2022
“It does everything — sort of like Twitter, plus PayPal, plus a whole bunch of things, and all rolled into one, with a great interface,” Musk said. “It’s really an excellent app, and we don’t have anything like that outside of China.”
As part of a lawsuit in Florida over suspended accounts, the company said “Twitter, Inc. has been merged into X Corp. and no longer exists.”
