US government has access to users' private messages on Twitter, says Musk

Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, claimed in a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson that the US government has "full access" to users' private direct messages on the platform, stating that the information blew his mind.

Musk, who founded the artificial intelligence company X.AI, expressed his concern about the latest wave of artificial intelligence telling Carlson that he believes the technology has the potential to destroy civilisation.

"The degree to which government agencies effectively had full access to everything that was going on on Twitter blew my mind," Musk said in the interview. "I was not aware of that."

When Carlson asked if this included people's direct messages, Musk replied, "Yes."

Musk's remarks come as he embroils himself in another feud, this time with National Public Radio (NPR), an independent news organisation. NPR recently announced a Twitter boycott of sorts when it decided to let its accounts go dormant and said it would no longer post on the social media platform after the company added a "state-affiliated media" label to a number of media outlets that receive some public funding.

Twitter later changed the "state-affiliated" label to say "government-funded" after receiving widespread pushback from the decision.

In a statement, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said that NPR is an independent news organisation, stating, "If anyone were to follow their coverage, it is clear that they are indeed an independent news organisation."