Elon Musk has alleged that the previous management of Twitter permitted U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies to access users’ direct messages on the platform.
What Happened: In an interview with Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, the billionaire tech tycoon said that among the most “absurd” revelations he has made since acquiring the company for $44 billion, Twitter was enabling U.S. and foreign intelligence agencies to view users’ DMs on the platform.
“The degree to which government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind,” Musk said during the interview. “I was not aware of that.”
When asked if that included people’s DMs, the Twitter CEO replied, “Yes,” adding, “Because the DMs aren’t encrypted.”
Musk also announced his intention to introduce a feature that would allow users to encrypt direct messages to reduce government intervention. He plans to reveal this new feature later this month.
In November, the tech billionaire hinted that the microblogging site is working on Signal-like end-to-end encryption for its DMs to ensure no one can spy on or hack private conversations. Even before acquiring Twitter, Musk expressed his wish for the site to have end-to-end encryption for DMs.
Why It’s Important: On Monday, Meta Platform Inc.’s META WhatsApp head Will Cathcart shared an “open letter” opposing new legislation that the U.K. government is considering saying that it “opens the door” for technology companies to break end-to-end encryption on private messaging services.
He said, “The law could give an unelected official the power to weaken the privacy of billions of people around the world.”
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