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

In a concerning development, X, which is owned by Elon Musk, has begun manually reviewing certain users’ direct messages (DMs) to address reported violations and misuse of its service, as well as to comply with legal requirements or governmental requests.

When a user with the @kimdotcom account brought attention to this policy update, Elon Musk did not directly address the query on Monday, which contradicts the platform’s policy of ensuring end-to-end encryption for all content.

Musk acknowledged the current functionality of encryption for one-to-one messages as "clunky" if manually enabled, promising improvements to include group messages soon. He assured users that audio and video calls on X are automatically encrypted.

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This revelation sparked concerns among users about X's practice of manually reviewing DMs.

"Some users expressed alarm over Elon Musk's acknowledgment of X manually reviewing DMs. One user questioned whether Musk understood the concern raised by Kim, who worried about governmental scrutiny of DMs," commented another user, highlighting the broader unease about privacy and government collaboration on the platform.