Elon Musk is attempting once more to escape FTC oversight of X's data handling practices, seeking to end a 20-year privacy monitoring order established after Twitter settled a $150 million case involving misuse of user contact information for advertising.

Musk argues X's corporate restructuring and supposed "world-class privacy program" justify ending the order, while the FTC maintains concerns about compliance given layoffs of privacy staff and Musk's demands for access to systems. The agency has documented lapses in X's privacy controls, with no one responsible for 37% of privacy program controls.

Public commenters overwhelmingly oppose Musk's petition, calling his compliance costs "proportionate to the scale of the violation" and noting X has experienced multiple data breaches since the order was established. One commenter argued the FTC's monitoring is now more critical as the combined company has "strong commercial incentives to train AI on user data."