Twitter CEO Elon Musk called out a reporter during a surprise interview that took place at the microblogging platform’s office recently. In an in-depth BBC interview, Musk was questioned about the rise of hate speech on Twitter, to which the billionaire asked the journalist to mention one such incident that he must have come across on Twitter.

“What hate speech are you talking about? I mean, you use Twitter. Do you see a rise in hate speech? Just a personal anecdote? I don’t,” Musk replied.

When asked to mention any incident or an example of hate speech on Twitter, the journalist, visibly fumbling, said he doesn’t “actually use that feed anymore” because he doesn’t particularly like it. He was talking about Twitter’s ‘For You’ feature which was rolled out recently, along with several other implementations and rules that Musk has introduced after buying the social media platform.

After Musk asked the journalist to describe what he means by hateful content to better understand his question, the interviewer said: “The content that (would solicit a reaction) may include something that is slightly racist or slightly sexist, those kinds of things.”

“So you think if something is slightly sexist, it should be banned,” Musk asked. “No, I am not saying anything,” the BBC journalist quickly pointed out.

At this point in the interview, which goes on for almost an hour, we can see the confusion on Musk’s face while the journalist looks towards the crew members behind the Twitter CEO, probably for a lead to escape the knot. To diffuse the situation and move on to the next question, the journalist clarifies that his feed has got slightly more hateful content. “Hang on a second, you said you have seen more hateful content but you can’t name a single example, not even one?” Musk questioned.

However, the journalist then goes on to say that he is not sure whether he has used the feed on Twitter in the last 3 or 4 weeks, but he has been using the platform for six months since Musk took over the company.

“But then how do you see the hateful content?” the Twitter CEO continued, pointing out that at some point he must come across some tweet with hateful content and all he is asking for is one example, which the reporter doesn’t seem to have. “Then I say sir that you don’t know what you are talking about… because you cannot give me a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet. You claimed that hateful content is high. That is false, you just lied,” Musk said.

To back his claim, the reporter said that many organisation say that kind of (hateful) content is on the rise (on Twitter), whether it is on his personal feed or not, and whenever there is a strategic dialogue on the matter in the UK, people say the same.

But Musk stood his ground. “Look, people will say all sorts of nonsense. I am literally asking for a single example and you can’t give one. You literally said you experienced more hateful content and then couldn’t name a single example. That’s absurd,” the Tesla chief said.

A small clip from the 1-hour-long awkward interview has been making the rounds on the Internet where many are slamming the reporter for sitting down for an interview with “one of the brightest people on the planet” about a company he recently brought and not doing his homework.

“One would imagine, if you are going to tackle one of the brightest people on the planet, about a company he has recently bought, that you’d come into the discussion at least semi-prepared. What a car wreck of an interview,” Mike Able tweeted.

One would imagine, if you are going to tackle one of the brightest people on the planet, about a company he has recently bought, that you’d come into the discussion at least semi-prepared. What a car wreck of an interview 🎪

— Mike Abel (@abelmike) April 12, 2023

While some also laughed on the whole situation and praised Musk.

“List of things Elon Musk owns:
Tesla
SpaceX
Twitter
Neuralink
TheBoringCompany
This Journalist,” YouTuber Jake Buckley tweeted.

List of things Elon Musk owns:

Tesla
SpaceX
Twitter
Neuralink
TheBoringCompany
This Journalist

— JAKE BUCKLEY 🇦🇺 (@TheMasterBucks) April 12, 2023