Elon Musk Fought Government Surveillance - While Profiting Off Government Surveillance
The Intercept
March 25, 2024
Ten years ago, the internet platform X, then known as Twitter, filed a lawsuit against the government it hoped would force transparency around abuse-prone surveillance of social media users.
X's court battle, though, clashes with an uncomfortable fact: The company is itself in the business of government surveillance of social media.
Under the new ownership of Elon Musk, X had continued the litigation, until it's defeat in January.
The suit was aimed at overturning a governmental ban on disclosing the receipt of requests, known as national security letters, that compel companies to turn over everything from user metadata to private direct messages.
Companies that receive these requests are typically legally bound to keep the request secret and can usually only disclose the number they receive in a given year in vague numerical ranges.
In it's petition to the Supreme Court last September, X's attorneys took up the banner of communications privacy: "History demonstrates that the surveillance of electronic communications is both a fertile ground for government abuse and a lightning-rod political topic of intense concern to the public."
After the court declined to take up the case in January, Musk responded tweeting, "Disappointing that the Supreme Court declined to hear this matter."
More:
https://theintercept.com/2024/03/25/elon-musk-x-dataminr-surveillance-privacy/
