Elon Musk renews bid to end FTC audits of X's data privacy practices

Elon Musk is making a second attempt to escape the Federal Trade Commission's strict 20-year data privacy order on X (formerly Twitter). The order, imposed in 2022 shortly before Musk's takeover, stemmed from Twitter's voluntary disclosure that a coding error between 2013 and 2019 allowed phone numbers and email addresses provided for two-factor authentication to be used for targeted advertising. Twitter agreed to pay $150 million and submit to regular independent audits until 2042. Musk's first challenge in 2023 failed after a court found no authority to revoke the order.

Now Musk presents new legal arguments: that X Corp. no longer exists because it was merged into xAI and then folded into SpaceX, that none of the original staff responsible for the error remain, and that the company has built a "world-class" privacy program. He also argues $17 million in "needless costs" and that GDPR compliance already covers similar requirements. The FTC pushes back, citing a deposition from an engineer that layoffs and cost-cutting impaired X's ability to implement technical restrictions on contact data use, leaving 37% of privacy controls unassigned. The agency also flagged Musk's demands for internal system access for the "Twitter Files" and a text threatening to fire anyone blocking an executive assistant's system access. The FTC argued security staff sometimes had to disobey Musk to stay compliant. X also claims the order could chill speech and that Trump's AI Action Plan requires agencies to drop such orders.