Federal agencies had access to Twitter users’ direct messages: Elon Musk to Tucker Carlson

In the clip, Musk states that “the degree to which various government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on, on Twitter blew my mind.” He added, “I was not aware of that.”

Carlson in a follow-up question asked, “would that include people's DMs?” Musk answered, “yes.”

Musk officially purchased Twitter late last year to make the platform a place for "free speech." In December as he began to release the ‘Twitter files’ with the help of independent journalists, Musk said, "the Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself." He added, "the Public deserves to know what happened..."

Journalist Matt Taibbi's sixth installment exposed how the platform had acted as a "subsidiary" of the FBI. Taibbi revealed that "between January 2020 and November 2022 there had been over 150 emails between the FBI and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth."

Taibbi showed an internal email from November 5th, 2022, where the FBI had sent Twitter a list of accounts that they said “may warrant additional action.”

After Bari Weiss released another Twitter Files drop in December, Jack Posobiec pointed out in one of the screenshots, “there is a ‘Direct Messages’ tab.” This led to the revelation that Twitter employees had access to people's DMs.

Musk was asked by Marina Medvin “what is your position on DMs and user privacy rights?” He responded, “DM’s should be encrypted, so that it is impossible for anyone at Twitter to see the public’s DM’s”. He added, “just as the case with Signal or iMessage.”

The clip from Tucker Carlson Tonight is the first time it has been revealed that government agencies had access to users' private conversations.