Elon Musk is making a second attempt to escape a 20-year data privacy order from the Federal Trade Commission, arguing the regulatory oversight is now unjustifiable following a series of corporate restructurings.
The FTC order, which requires independent audits of X's data handling, was imposed shortly before Musk acquired Twitter in 2022. The action stemmed from a prior settlement where Twitter paid $150 million over a coding error that allowed user contact data to be used for ad targeting without proper consent.
Musk's new petition claims the order should be voided because X has been merged into xAI, which was then folded into SpaceX. He also argues that none of the engineers responsible for the original data error remain at the company, and that X has since built a world-class privacy program.
Critics have warned that Musk cannot be trusted to protect user privacy, pointing to mass layoffs that gutted compliance teams and alleged data breaches involving millions of user records. The FTC had previously noted that security staff sometimes had to disobey Musk to remain compliant.
Public comments on the petition are being accepted until July 2. Most submissions so far urge the FTC to deny Musk's request, arguing that the oversight remains critical.