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Elon Musk and one of his \u201cTwitter Files\u201d writers, Matt Taibbi, don\u2019t seem to be on great terms right now<\/a>, and that situation probably isn\u2019t getting any better after Musk posted then deleted a DM conversation between the two of them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Let me try to recap how we got to this point. I\u2019m warning you now that it\u2019s a bit of a mess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Those DMs are now deleted, but we saved them, if you want to look:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Image: Elon Musk, in a now-deleted tweet<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Image: Elon Musk, in a now-deleted tweet<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Musk, in what appears to be a Signal chat<\/a>, asks Taibbi: \u201cYou are employed at Substack?\u201d Taibbi explains that his subscribers pay him and that he was one of the first \u201cSubstack Pro\u201d writers, who were given an upfront payment for a year<\/a> in return for giving Substack 85 percent of subscription revenue. Taibbi also asks if Twitter will fix an issue where his Twitter Files threads were being deleted, and Musk says that will happen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n You can see where the DMs were removed by scrolling up this thread<\/a> or from the tweet below, where Musk claims that Substack was \u201cillegally downloading vast amounts of data to pre-populate their Twitter clone.\u201d (Best denied a similar claim over the weekend<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Ultimately, the DMs aren\u2019t that salacious. But it\u2019s a worrying sign that Musk, the most-followed person on Twitter<\/a>, is willing to just post what Taibbi likely expected to be private conversations. It\u2019s also a curious wrinkle on Musk\u2019s stated aim to make Twitter DMs encrypted<\/a>. Encryption isn\u2019t as useful for anyone who DMs him if he might just post a screenshot of the conversation anyway. On the other hand, it would mean that even the owner of Twitter can\u2019t just peek into your private messages to grab material for his next thread.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n