Tesla billionaire Elon Musk got into a heated debate with the reporter

The billionaire had a very awkward chat with a journalist in resurfaced footage where he accused the interviewer of lying.

We’re all aware that Elon Musk has been known to make some bizarre and wacky claims, even once remarking that he’d lived in a haunted mansion.

But he isn’t afraid to stand up for what he believes in and he’s also proven that he’ll fight back when challenged on it.

Elon Musk accused the journalist of lying in the video clip (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)

In an interview with BBC’s James Clayton, the Tesla mogul got heated over a discussion about hate speech versus free speech.

Musk said: “Free speech is meaningless unless you allow people you don’t like to say things you don’t like, otherwise it’s irrelevant.”

Clayton quizzed the billionaire on whether freedom of speech is more important that combating misinformation, to which Musk replied with, “one person’s misinformation is another person’s information”.

However, things took a turn when the reporter pushed Musk on the possible rise in hate speech on X, formerly Twitter, since he took over the site.

Elon Musk clashed with a journalist in the resurfaced clip (BBC)

Clayton claimed that he has seen “more hateful content” on the site since Musk’s takeover but when asked for an example, he admitted that he didn’t have one to hand.

When asked what hateful content is, Clayton replied that it’s, “content that will solicit a reaction. something that may include something that is slightly racist or slightly sexist”.

Musk responded: “So you think if something is slightly sexist it should be banned.

“I’m asking for specific examples and you just said that if something is slightly sexist that’s hateful content.”

When pressed for an example, Clayton explained that he couldn’t think of one because he no longer uses the “for you” feature of X’s dashboard “because I just don’t particularly like it, a lot of people are quite similar”.

Elon Musk was quizzed about hate speech on X (Jaque Silva/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Musk appeared to be frustrated in the clip, telling the journalist: “You can’t name a single example of hateful content, not even one tweet and yet you’ve claimed that the hateful content was high.

“That’s false, you just lied.”

Unable to reach an agreement, Clayton suggested that they move on to another topic.

Musk went on to press Clayton the BBC’s reporting of masking and side effects of vaccinations.

Clayton replied: “I am not a representative of the BBC’s editorial policy, I want to make that clear. Let’s talk about something else.”

It seems fair to say that the entrepreneur isn’t a fan of anyone questioning how his leadership of the social media platform is faring!