The federal government should not have warrantless, backdoor access to private communication systems like Twitter.
The federal government unfortunately already has the capability to access everything stored by Big Tech companies, according to recent revelations from Twitter CEO Elon Musk that federal agencies had “full access” to private messages on Twitter.
There has been an ongoing struggle between the federal government and privacy-minded organizations when it comes to allowing back doors into users’ messages and data through sometimes questionable legal avenues. It is unprecedented that certain federal agencies have “full access to everything” in Big Tech systems.
The close partnership between Big Tech and the federal government deteriorates the privacy rights of Americans. This relationship highlights the importance of encryption for protecting Fourth Amendment privacy rights.
The “Twitter Files” revealed that federal agencies had infiltrated Twitter’s decision-making process prior to Musk’s takeover. Musk must clarify not only which federal agencies had “full access” to Twitter direct messages but also what “full access” means. Was the FBI able to read the direct messages of any Twitter user for any reason? How often did they abuse this power, and when did it end?
Elon Musk tweeted on May 10 that Twitter plans to roll out an end-to-end encryption feature for direct messages that will make federal snooping far more difficult. The update would make it so only the individuals receiving direct messages could locally decrypt them on their device, meaning not even Twitter or embedded federal agents could read them.
It is not clear, however, that end-to-end encryption
