Elon Musk says pain of buying Twitter has been 'extremely high' in a BBC interview Latest News

Elon Musk says the pain of buying Twitter has been 'extremely high' in a BBC interview.

Elon Musk has accused a BBC reporter of lying during an interview amid a row over whether hate speech is on the rise on the social network.

In a late-night discussion with the broadcaster, Mr Musk went on the attack against a BBC journalist who had asked him to respond to claims that hate speech had become more prevalent on Twitter since his takeover.

After Mr Musk asked the reporter, US tech journalist James Clayton, for an example of the offensive content, he accused him of spreading a "false" claim.

Mr Musk said: "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."

Mr Clayton defended his line of questioning, citing an organisation that has warned about a rise in hateful posts on the site.

Despite the altercation, Mr Musk said he would bow to the BBC's demands to remove a Twitter label designating the corporation as “government funded media” after a row with the broadcaster.

Mr Musk said he would agree to alter the disclaimer to read “publicly funded”. He added: “We want it to be as truthful and accurate as possible - we’re adjusting the label.”

The billionaire had waded into a dispute with the broadcaster after adding labels to state-funded media groups on the social network. He claimed the BBC was guilty of bias, although added it was “among the least biased”.

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