Elon Musk's new revelation is coming

Elon Musk has disclosed a new encryption feature while also revealing that US intelligence agencies had unrestricted access to private Twitter direct messages prior to his acquisition of the social media platform. The billionaire made these claims during an exclusive interview with Fox News' Tucker Carlson. The first part of the interview aired on "Tucker Carlson Tonight" on Monday, with the second part scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. Musk discussed a range of topics during the interview, including his worries about artificial intelligence and his future plans for the platform.

During the two-part interview, Elon Musk stunned viewers with claims that his predecessors at Twitter allowed US and foreign intelligence agencies to access users' direct messages on the platform. He described the discovery as "absurd" and "jaw-dropping," given that he had no prior knowledge of the extent of government surveillance on the platform before he acquired it for $44 billion. In response to a question from host Tucker Carlson, Musk confirmed that direct messages were among the content accessible to these agencies, as they are not encrypted. To address the issue, Musk is developing a new feature that would allow users to encrypt their direct messages and limit government interference. He aims to introduce this feature later this month.

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Elon Musk explained that if a user selects the encryption option for direct messages, Twitter staff would have no way of accessing the content. "You could put a gun to my head and I couldn't tell you," he told Carlson, emphasizing his commitment to protecting users' privacy. Since taking control of the platform, Musk has made it a personal mission to expose the relationship between Twitter and the federal government in content moderation. He recently released "The Twitter Files," which provided independent journalists with access to Twitter's archives for investigations, including the suspension of former President Trump's account and Twitter's role in censoring the Hunter Biden laptop story. The upcoming encryption feature for direct messages is expected to irk US intelligence agencies and their foreign counterparts, who have long used Twitter to gather intelligence, Carlson noted, adding that Musk has already received "indirect complaints" about the move.

According to Musk, people may be hesitant to complain to him directly because they fear he will tweet about it. He stated that if he were to receive an unconstitutional demand from the US government, he would send them a copy of the First Amendment and ask, "What part of this are we getting wrong?"

Musk has become a major newsmaker since his acquisition of Twitter, which struck a nerve with Democrats and the liberal media due to his stated goal of restoring free speech on a platform perceived as having a left-leaning bias. While Musk admitted feeling uneasy about the platform in the months leading up to the acquisition, he was unaware that it had become a haven for intelligence agencies.

Elon Musk, who has been a heavy Twitter user since 2009, compared his experience on the platform to being in "The Matrix," saying he felt uneasy about the direction the platform was headed prior to his acquisition. In an interview with Tucker Carlson, Musk explained that his conversations with the board and management confirmed his intuition that "something feels wrong" and the platform was drifting in a bad direction. This led him to acquire Twitter in an effort to restore free speech and limit government interference, including granting full access to private messages to intelligence agencies. Musk also discussed his concerns with artificial intelligence and his plans to establish an alternative to ChatGPT, an AI app he initially funded but now fears could lead to "civilizational destruction" if mismanaged. Part two of the interview will air Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.