WASHINGTON, D.C. — Elon Musk filed a petition with the Federal Trade Commission in May requesting the termination of the agency's data-privacy monitoring order on X, formerly Twitter. He requested termination immediately or by year-end to avoid compliance costs.
Musk asserted in the petition that the company was merged into xAI and then folded into SpaceX. He argued that current leadership and engineers are not responsible for the original authentication error. Musk said, "The agency is tainted by bias."
X claimed it paid $17 million in costs from a lawsuit over the authentication issue that ended in its favor. A company representative stated, "The factual foundation of the FTC's complaint has been dismantled." The company also claimed, "The Order's staggering costs—imposed on both the Company and on the Commission itself are unjustifiable." X argued the monitoring order duplicates compliance efforts because it already adheres to the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation. According to Musk, "X has since built a world-class privacy and data-protection program."
The FTC imposed a data-privacy order on Twitter in 2022, which restricts company data use for 20 years and requires regular independent audits. Twitter disclosed that a coding error between May 2013 and September 2019 allowed two-factor authentication contact information to be used for targeted advertising. Twitter agreed to pay $150 million in a settlement that required agency monitoring of data-handling practices until 2042.
A court dismissed Musk's 2023 lawsuit seeking to revoke the order, ruling it lacked authority to amend or terminate the agency's mandate. The FTC stated that Musk's termination of compliance staff raised concerns about the company's ability to follow the order. The agency cited an engineer deposition stating layoffs impaired technical restrictions on contact data use. The agency argued that no one was responsible for approximately 37 percent of the company's privacy program controls. The FTC noted that Musk demanded journalists receive access to internal systems for the release of the "Twitter Files." The agency also noted a text message from Musk demanding immediate system access for an executive assistant and stating that staff blocking access would be fired. The FTC stated in 2024 that company security staff sometimes had to disobey Musk to maintain compliance with the order.
The FTC has published a notice seeking public comments on the petition to end the monitoring order. Public comments are due July 2. William Pate II submitted a comment arguing that corporate mergers do not justify ending the monitoring order. Pate stated, "That makes the order's privacy review requirements more relevant, not less." Pate cited two data breaches at the company involving 200 million records in 2023 and 2.8 billion profiles in 2025. He argued that these data breaches contradict the company's claims regarding its privacy compliance efforts.