Elon Musk's X manually reviewing users' direct messages? What he said

The new update goes against the policy of providing end-to-end encryption to every content on the platform.

Elon Musk-owned X is manually reviewing certain users' direct messages (DMs) as the social media platform investigates reported violations and misuse of its service. This is also being done "to comply with laws or governmental requests”, the company said in a policy update which was pointed out by a user on X. The new update goes against the policy of providing end-to-end encryption to every content on the platform.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference on innovation and startups at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, June 16, 2023. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes/File Photo (REUTERS)

When questions were raised on the changes, tech billionaire Elon Musk did not offer a clear answer to the query and said, “It currently works in a clunky way for one to one messages (if you turn it on). We're working on making it easy to use and apply to group messages too."

“X audio and video calls are automatically encrypted,” he added.

Users raised alarm over X manually reviewing DMs with one noting, “Is it me or did Elon not understand the question of Kim? Kim was worried about reviewing the DMs by government request."

Another commented: “You didn't address the root on the concern. Why is X collaborating with governments to sift through our private DMs?”