- It's not clear how the government accessed private Twitter DMs
- Musk might provide encryption for direct messages
Elon Musk has claimed the US government had full access to everything on Twitter, including private direct messages (DMs) between users, Forbes Magazine reported today, citing a new video shared by Tucker Carlson that has since gone viral.
The full interview airs on FOX today
The short clip is a teaser to the full interview with Musk, which will air on FOX News today, April 17. Musk said:
The degree to which various government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind. I was not aware of that.
When asked by Carlson if that included people’s DMs, the hectobillionaire answered in the affirmative.
Next questions
Forbes wrote about some subsequent “logical” questions, such as how the government’s access to private Twitter DMs worked, assuming this was something going beyond a request via a court order. How did they survey the platform? Did they simply monitor everyone’s messages all the time?
Will Musk encrypt DMs?
Another question people will want answered is whether he will provide encryption for direct messages as the new owner, something he’s indicated he might do before, among other plans for Twitter.
The government obtains access through a court order in most cases, like when the FBI or another government agency wants to see tech companies’ databases.
Does Musk or another boss at Twitter have access to users’ DMs? What is stopping employees from checking what public figures are writing or what an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend might be telling someone else on the medium?
These questions are important to the government as well. Recently, some US senators demanded information from Tesla in writing about its protection measures for customer privacy or lack thereof. It had emerged Tesla staff was sharing all kinds of videos that only the company’s engineers were supposed to access.
