US government Had ‘Full Access’ To Private Twitter DMs, Says Elon Musk

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

#TwitterFiles affirmed longstanding suspicions ranging from collusion with the U.S. government to politically-motivated censorship, to the shadowbanning of conservative influencers.

Not included was perhaps the gravest of accusations: that the government had access to private messages between accounts.

Twitter Files did not address the matter. But excerpts from an interview between Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson do.

Monday night, Fox News will air the exchange in which Musk reveals the government’s ability to read users’ direct messages.

“The degree to which government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind,” says Musk. “I was not aware of that.”

“Would that include people’s DMs?” Carlson asked. 

“Yes,” Musk replied.

Elon Musk and the Current Thing meme

Elon Musk did not state what the government did with said private information. It's unclear if he is aware.

But certainly, people have a right to know. Access to DMs would include accounts for political opponents.

And only a sucker would believe the government hasn't used obtaining private messages to its political advantage.

Internal communications already reveal the government strongarmed Twitter to act as its agent, to censor critics of whom the First Amendment prohibits the government from silencing.

We wrote a detailed column on this topic last summer, foreshadowing what #TwitterFiles reveal.

A revelation this large should be front-page news across all of the outlets. Yet Musk's comments have hardly dented the newsfeeds of outlets like CNN, CBS, and ABC.

Why?

Why is the press burying the head of a leading social media service notifying users that the government could spy on every private DM they've ever sent?

Ignoring such news in favor of stories of far less consequence -- see the CNN homepage -- embodies the War on Information that Musk has sought to expose since taking control of Twitter.

Whatever you think of Musk's performance as Chief Twit -- and it has been rocky at times -- he has remained true to his promise to pull back the curtain on the inner workings of Big Tech.

Twitter Files was the most significantly-reported new story of the last year. And it would appear revelations are still incoming.

Consider that the government must also have access to direct messages on Facebook and Instagram, services with larger user bases than Twitter.

Keep that in mind next time you DM a friend an off-color remark or a criticism of the tyrannical actions of the current administration.

Big Brother is watching you.