# Twitter's FBI portal messages auto-deleted after two weeks

Markdown copy of https://realalpha.app/s/twitters-fbi-portal-messages-auto-deleted-after-two-weeks/ on Real Alpha, the best minutes from long interviews with the people building AI. Cite and link the page, not this copy.

- Speaker: [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) · Elon Musk is a business magnate, designer, and engineer. · Co-founded PayPal, founded SpaceX and xAI, and has been Tesla's CEO since 2008.
- Host: [Joe Rogan](https://realalpha.app/people/joe-rogan/) · Host, The Joe Rogan Experience
- Show: The Joe Rogan Experience
- Episode: [Joe Rogan Experience #2223 - Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/), Nov 4, 2024
- Moment: 35:42 to 38:03 of the episode (2 min), playing on https://realalpha.app/s/twitters-fbi-portal-messages-auto-deleted-after-two-weeks/; the episode from there: https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2142

## Quote

> “The FBI had this sort of magic portal into the Twitter system, but all of the communication in this portal was **auto-deleted after two weeks**”
> — [Elon Musk](https://realalpha.app/builders/elon-musk/) at [36:43](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2203) · The Joe Rogan Experience

## Takeaways

1. Musk says the FBI had a portal into Twitter
2. He says portal communications auto-deleted after two weeks
3. He describes limited advertiser backlash to the Twitter Files

## About this segment

Elon Musk says Twitter had an FBI portal whose messages auto-deleted after two weeks. He says the Twitter Files drew little advertiser backlash despite documenting government interactions with the platform.

From “Joe Rogan Experience #2223 - Elon Musk”, Nov 4, 2024. [Watch the full episode](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/)

## Transcript

Transcribed by machine (Whisper) from the episode’s audio, so a word may be off here and there.

[35:46](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2146) Well, what was the pushback? Like what happened when you guys released the Twitter files? Because I think the Twitter files is probably one of the most important things in this age of information for understanding the influence that government has on social media and on discourse. Because when we found out that that was the case, that the government was actually asking Twitter to remove posts that were factual, they did the same thing to Facebook.

[36:10](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2170) They had them throttle pieces of one of Tucker Carlson's show. They suppressed the views by 50 percent of factual information. Yeah. No, there was massive government interference in Twitter. But like Twitter welcomed it. That's important. All Twitter welcomed it. I mean, all Twitter was controlled by far-left activists, and they welcomed the government interference. They got paid by the government for it.

[36:40](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2200) That's crazy. They got paid for their time, correct? Yeah, they got paid millions of dollars for suppressing information. So it's like bill time? And a bunch of it was flat-out legal. The FBI had this sort of magic portal into the Twitter system, but all of the communication in this portal was auto-deleted after two weeks, which breaks federal FOIA laws. So we don't even know what was said because it was deleted after two weeks.

[37:05](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2225) That's insane. Yeah. That's so crazy. It's so crazy that people thought that was okay. It's super not okay. No, it's super not okay. It's unconstitutional, and no one would want that. no one would want the government to have that kind of access exactly and what was the blowback like when all that stuff got released like you had to anticipate that there was going to be problems when you release that like what was what happened well we got a lot of we didn't lose a lot of advertising dollars and which is crazy because it's essentially like one of the most important forms of journalism yes exposing government corruption yes I I mean, this is the weird thing.

[37:47](https://realalpha.app/v/7qZl_5xHoBw/?t=2267) It's like the left used to be big on exposing government corruption. But once they control the government, they no longer want to expose the government to corruption. Right. They want to pretend that the left-wing government is incapable of corruption because we're on the good side.