Imagine you are a young journalist. For example, they call you in any way. OK, James Clayton. You are a tech reporter. And in their autobiography they humbly stated: “My only task is to state everything simply and clearly.” A modest task for such an ambitious profession. Where you can easily become famous in five minutes. The fate of people who are not like Larry King but become famous is known thanks to a single question asked by key people at the right time. And now you have the opportunity to interview a billionaire who owns the most notable and important ones, including Twitter. Fix it to the wall. This is how you picture yourself receiving a Pulitzer Prize on stage at Columbia University. And they got so caught up in writing the Pulitzer speech that they forgot to even prepare for the interview.
This is exactly what happened to James Clayton and his interview with Elon Musk on the BBC.
Clayton asked a provocative question: The number of offensive comments (hate speech) has skyrocketed since you took over Twitter. What do you say about this?
And dear friend, did you think that with this question you would directly get Mask into a dead end?
As head of Twitter, Musk fired nearly all eight thousand employees, leaving one and a half thousand employees left. Otherwise Twitter would live for four months, very unprofitable. Almost all of those fired were responsible for moderation.
Moderation is such a sweet process that you call anything you don’t like “fascism”, “racism”, “misogyny”, “homophobia”, “hate incitement”. And exile with a clear conscience. A familiar process of dehumanization and destruction.
Petya said: it is necessary to strengthen immigration bans – Petya is racist. Vasya said: I am for traditional marriages – Vasya is a homophobe. Julia said: I am for judicial reform – I am a fascist. She said: I’m with Trump – you’re fueling hatred. Everything is in the bathroom.
Moderation is the sister of censorship, but it is deceptive and has a modern look.
According to the BBC, there has been a marked increase in violence on Twitter in recent months, troll attacks, hate speech and misogyny, and much more propaganda and information manipulation. Not only the BBC, but the rest of the media are sure of it. Because Clayton had asked his question without evidence. This is something everyone knows. What is there to prove…
And Musk responded by asking for proof. Only. From then on “something went wrong.” Come on, it didn’t quite go that way.
Right at that moment, Clayton was in dismay to himself, damn, if the ai shud bean bean had been better prepared, which translates to: ah, damn, why didn’t I at least make some kind of really rude and offensive comment? I was not better prepared. Clayton had no evidence and no precedent.
That’s why he replied to Musk: “Well, I haven’t been on Twitter for a long time, just because there is an increase in offensive speech, troll attacks, hate speech and misogyny.” Moreover, Clayton shared and commented that she was “a little”, “a little”, “a little bit of misogyny”, “a little bit of racism”, a little bit pregnant. “Sorry, what do you mean?” he asked. “A little bit of racism should be banned, do you think?”
A journalist, in general, is someone whose job is to obtain evidence, whose job is to demand evidence from others; This is a person who works professionally with texts, facts, evidence, fact-checking.
– After you came, the number of offensive comments on Twitter increased significantly.
– Evidence!..
– …
All right, James, quit the job, okay? Now will you go to the BBC photo service with a photo corrector to cover your boobs in the news from the actions of the Femen movement?
Good story. A very important and significant failure. A monument to unprofessionalism and prejudice. But because hate speech on Twitter is common in the left-liberal media, it’s a common view. So much that it doesn’t require proof?
Before Musk, there was indeed a “left bias” on Twitter, whose moderation was clearly unfair to conservatives. Left-liberal users could write whatever they wanted, bullying and hatred. But right-wing conservative grumbling had to be rigidly filtered. Or – instant dehumanization and a sudden ban. The heaviest victim of this roll has been loudly Donald Trump.
Musk, as you know, has declared freedom of speech as his policy and is not banning anyone, neither conservatives nor liberals, let alone.
Even Dmitry Medvedev, even Dmitry Rogozin. Elon Musk personally went to hell and got the most obnoxious Donald Trump and the likes of him out of the goddamn ban. All non-democrats. Retrograde. Right deviations. Trotskyists. And everything.
Of course, no Musk is the Prokhanov of all of America. But that’s how they want to present it in the media. Of course, Musk is far from real fat trolls, like the fiery birds of Zhirinovsky and Prokhanov. But something like this is already on the way. Outwardly it is already almost similar. We hope Musk continues on this glorious path.
Here sits such an uncle, not quite my idol yet, but already chubby, sloppy dressed, not taking care of himself and waging a one-on-one battle with the most influential left-liberal party (all media).
The author expresses his personal opinion, which may not coincide with the editors’ position.