X manually reviews users’ direct messages, Musk has no clear answer

It is troubling that Elon Musk-owned company X has begun manually reviewing some users’ private messages (DMs) to address reported violations and misuse of its services, as well as to comply with legal requirements or government requests.

When user @kimdotcom brought this policy update to attention, Musk did not respond directly to the inquiry on Monday, which is contrary to the platform’s policy of providing end-to-end encryption for all content.

Musk admitted that the current one-on-one encryption functionality for messaging is “clunky” when enabled manually, promising improvements that will include group messaging soon. He assured users that audio and video calls on X are automatically encrypted.

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The discovery raised concerns among users about X’s practice of manually checking private messages.

“Some users have expressed concern over Elon Musk’s admission that X manually reviews private messages. One user asked if Musk understood the concerns expressed by Kim, who was worried about government scrutiny of private messages,” another user commented, highlighting broader concerns about privacy and government cooperation on the platform.