Twitter CEO, Elon Musk and James Clayton, the technology reporter for BBC North America, Tuesday night had a heated debate in which the tech billionaire ripped into the British broadcasting giant’s policy regarding COVID-19 reporting.
The interview which took place on Twitter spaces started on milder terrain, with Clayton asking Musk about lay-offs at Twitter.
Clayton asked the Twitter boss why the affected employees were not given notice and if he regretted the manner of their sacking, to which Musk replied that they got severance pay.
The journalist subsequently asked the Twitter CEO why the social media giant stopped taking action against tweets breaching its rules on Covid misinformation.
“Who is to say something is misinformation, is it the BBC?” Musk replied.
Musk pointedly accused the BBC of sharing Covid “misinformation” about mask-wearing and vaccine side effects.
He said, “What about the BBC’s misinformation about Covid?
“Does the BBC hold itself at all responsible for misinformation regarding masking and 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 the editorial policy, were you aware of that?”
Defending the decision to remove warning labels on COVID-19-related tweets last November, he said, “No longer an issue.”
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