Musk wants to compel seniors to come to X for Social Security information

The Social Security Administration (SSA) is moving all of its public communications off its website and onto the social media site owned by billionaire and DOGE leader Elon Musk, according to reporting from Wired.

SSA has used press releases and news articles on its own website to get updates out to the public. Pushing all public communications to X—where only 7% of users are age 65 or older—will make it difficult for seniors to find truthful, reliable information about Social Security. 

“Retirees, disabled individuals and the millions of beneficiaries who rely on Social Security should not need an X account to receive updates on the program,” said AFSCME President Lee Saunders. “Moving all Social Security communications to Elon Musk’s personal social media platform is a blatant effort to gain more users and pad X’s profits. This move should ring alarm bells everywhere.”

The Trump administration and Elon Musk have been working to sow distrust in the system that keeps millions of seniors from falling into poverty. Thousands of SSA employees have been fired and dozens of regional offices have been shuttered, making it harder for seniors to get questions answered about their benefits. The move to X will only make things more difficult.

Their endgame in trying to destroy trust in Social Security is simple: They want to reduce benefits and privatize the system so that billionaires can continue to get even richer, while retirees will struggle to get by.

“This administration has made their desire to gut and then privatize Social Security clear,” Saunders said. “Shuttering the program’s regional offices and moving all communications to a single, unaccountable, insecure, for-profit social media company is just the next step in their scheme to enrich billionaires with our tax dollars.”