The Zoff between Elon Musk and the BBC in 6 points

Hardly anyone is currently polarizing as strongly as Elon Musk. Especially since the takeover of Twitter, the multibillionaire has caused a stir almost every day. On his platform, Musk not only provokes controversial tweets, but also innovations on Twitter that not everyone likes.

The following incident happened early this week: Elon Musk took on the British public broadcaster BBC. The conflict ended in mutual accusations – that’s how it started.

A memorable label

A few days ago, Twitter started labeling some corporate accounts. The BBC has also been affected: the main profile of the public broadcaster, which is followed by some 2.2 million people, now has a small lectern. Next to it is the inscription “State-funded media” – ie “state-funded medium”.

According to Twitter, the purpose of this label is to “provide additional context for accounts heavily involved in geopolitics and diplomacy.” A distinction is made between “media close to the state”, which is subject to political pressure from the government, and “state-funded media”, which are editorially independent.

BBC complains on Twitter

Missing the account with that label didn’t resonate with the BBC at all. On Monday, the British broadcaster announced that it had lodged a complaint with Twitter and demanded that the problem be resolved “as soon as possible”. “BBC is and has always been independent,” the media outlet said. It is not funded by the state, but by British society.

Musk’s first reaction

The BBC subsequently contacted Elon Musk with these concerns. He replied by email, arguing that they were looking for “maximum accuracy and transparency.” It is crucial to show where the money comes from. Nor should the BBC falsely claim to be completely impartial at all times. At the same time, Musk stressed that he thinks the BBC is “one of the least biased”.

A spontaneous interview

On Tuesday evening (Wednesday morning Swiss time) there was a direct discussion between the BBC and Musk. The billionaire explained on Twitter that he offered the media company to speak to a representative at Twitter’s California headquarters, which they accepted “to my surprise”.

That same evening he was visited by James Clayton, a BBC technology journalist living in San Francisco, California. As he later wrote in a report, it was not until shortly before the interview began that he could really believe that the conversation would actually take place. “I wasn’t quite sure he meant it,” Clayton said. In fact, Musk means it — provided he can livestream the interview on the Twitter audio streaming platform Spaces. Clayton agreed.

Agree on the label issue

The live audience—more than 3 million people, according to Musk’s team—watched the multi-billionaire eventually succumb to the label issue. “We’re going to change the label to publicly funded,” Musk said.

This despite the 51-year-old admitting to having a difficult relationship with the media. As a “love-hate relationship – but probably with more hate,” he described it with a laugh. The media in the US and Britain would “regularly finish him off”. At the same time, he emphasized the importance of a free press. Certain countries don’t allow “the media to say mean things about powerful people”, which is not good.

Musk turns the tables

However, the conversation between Musk and Clayton was not all harmonious. When asked by the journalist why hate speech on Twitter had increased since his takeover, Musk wanted a concrete example. When Clayton couldn’t immediately think of one, the billionaire said, “You can’t name any hate content, not a single tweet. At the same time, you’re saying hate speech has increased. That’s wrong, you just lied.”

In addition, Musk partially turned the tables on the interview and began questioning Clayton himself. It sometimes felt like he wanted to interview me, the journalist later wrote. Among other things, he wanted to know from Clayton what he thought of the BBC’s alleged “misinformation” about the corona pandemic.

After the interview, Musk continued to celebrate his statements on Twitter. He shared a user’s tweet, which featured the conversation about hate speech, writing that it “pulls deep and hard.”

Clayton himself gave an ambivalent impression of the interview. On the one hand, he wrote, Musk seemed to enjoy pressuring him and asking questions himself. He also gave some absurd answers – for example, that his dog is currently CEO of Twitter. On the other hand, Clayton writes that Musk answered him on numerous topics and took 90 minutes instead of the planned 30 minutes.

(dab)