created by I_DOM_UR_PATRIARCHY on 31/01/2025 at 22:42 UTC
470 upvotes, 20 top-level comments (showing 20)
Comment by tarekd19 at 31/01/2025 at 23:01 UTC
496 upvotes, 16 direct replies
If Musk is going to have this much power, congress definitely needs to weigh in. It doesn't seem like he's just running a committee anymore.
Comment by BackInNJAgain at 01/02/2025 at 01:39 UTC
160 upvotes, 3 direct replies
How is Elon Musk simply allowed to have this much power with no oversight? Is ANYONE keeping tabs on what he is doing? Why is he allowed to be requesting that Air Traffic Controllers resign when we have a shortage of them?
Comment by BoredZucchini at 31/01/2025 at 22:48 UTC
394 upvotes, 8 direct replies
When do we pass the threshold of all of this no longer being hysterical fear mongering? Will we ever reach that point? Stay tuned folks.
Comment by festeziooo at 01/02/2025 at 17:08 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
For the more conservative folks in here, can someone please explain to me what the thought process is behind letting Musk have this much power? Because to me this just looks like blatant corruption and it looks like he’s bought influence either financially or through the social power he has through owning Twitter.
I just can’t reconcile the “drain the swamp” thing with “here are the three richest humans of all time sitting together at the inauguration and one of them has an unofficial and unelected role within our government”.
Comment by I_DOM_UR_PATRIARCHY at 31/01/2025 at 22:57 UTC
155 upvotes, 4 direct replies
This is insane to me. According to this article, the government no longer has access to its own human resource database. The article says:
Aides to Elon Musk charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have locked career civil servants out of computer systems that contain the personal data of millions of federal employees, according to two agency officials.
I think there are a whole bunch of problems with this. First, it's insane that the government no longer has control over its own computer networks. I don't understand why we as American citizens would ever agree to lose access to our own systems and hand them to a foreigner. That's an enormous security risk. And it's not like Musk's behavior conveys a lot of loyalty to America.
Second, the database is full of all sorts of sensitive information about millions of people:
The systems include a vast database called Enterprise Human Resources Integration, **which contains dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades and length of service of government workers,** the officials said.
"We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems," one of the officials said. "That is creating great concern. There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications."
So now without any sort of legal or Congressional approval we've given access to an ocean of sensitive data to this random oligarch. It's insane.
Comment by MarthAlaitoc at 31/01/2025 at 23:00 UTC
135 upvotes, 3 direct replies
So we're at the "corporations taking over government controls" of the oligarchy speedrun that the US is going through eh? Welp, thats just great.
Comment by Zwicker101 at 01/02/2025 at 00:39 UTC
48 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Whats frightening is that we don't even know **who** from Musk's team can access this information. OPM has access to **tons** of information including personal information, to get access to it you need clearance of some kind. I doubt Musk's team has the privileges.
Comment by Zwolfer at 01/02/2025 at 07:10 UTC
12 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Would be nice if Congress started exercising some checks and balances right about now…
Comment by NativeMasshole at 31/01/2025 at 22:56 UTC
75 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Since taking office 11 days ago, President Donald Trump has embarked on a massive government makeover
They seem to have spelled "takeover" wrong.
"It feels like a hostile takeover," the employee said.
Oh, nope, there it is! This person knows what's up.
Comment by Maladal at 31/01/2025 at 22:56 UTC
38 upvotes, 6 direct replies
So it sounds like these aren't DOGE guys, they're new employees of the OPM who have associations to Musk.
But if it's only "some" employees are locked out, and others can still access the systems as normal I'm not worried about malfeasance so much as incompetence.
Assuming the OPM runs on anything resembling modern software then there should be an audit trail of changes they make inside the system.
One would hope the Government is mandated to hold onto that kind of thing for a prolonged period of time.
Comment by DarkVandals at 01/02/2025 at 05:06 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It worries me Musk has access to such power, I dont think we should fill Washington with oligarchs
Comment by Jtizzle1231 at 01/02/2025 at 00:44 UTC
15 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What hell is going on? Is this a coup? Like for real. WTF?
Comment by skins_team at 01/02/2025 at 00:16 UTC
12 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Every time someone can't access a website, an article will get published saying this is the beginning of the end.
This will confirm the priors of any number of people, primed to expect the worst. There are few things in this life more powerful than confirming your priors ...
So what do we know for today's dose of panic and fear? Less people have access to a database containing the most sensitive private details of the entire federal workforce?? And Elon Musk (of all people) has an assistant who might be behind this??
Yeah, I'm giving this my normal 48 hours before even considering it. I've seen this drill way too many times to get fired up day one OR two of stories like this.
Comment by rwk81 at 01/02/2025 at 01:05 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is a report from an anonymous source?
Comment by [deleted] at 01/02/2025 at 03:01 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[removed]
Comment by Ping-Crimson at 01/02/2025 at 16:23 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thank you ugh... president musk?
Comment by i8yourmom4lunch at 01/02/2025 at 17:57 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
How is it even possible for them to lock employees out? Did they change the locks? Is there only one key? Is no one in charge over there???
Are these now white house staff that are actually just musk's staff?
How is this not an act of terrorism and why is it so hard to find info???
Comment by Fssya at 02/02/2025 at 05:38 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This access verification is a perfectly normal activity in private industry to safeguard personal data. Access to this type of personal data should be need-to-know only and should be audited on a regular schedule.
Comment by notapersonaltrainer at 31/01/2025 at 23:47 UTC
-10 upvotes, 1 direct replies
charged with running the U.S. government human resources agency have
The new appointees in charge of OPM
So the new management is...making management decisions?
Comment by AstroBullivant at 01/02/2025 at 01:28 UTC*
-9 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Is there any actual evidence that Elon Musk actually did this? It is a serious crime to lock government workers out of their computers, so the claim is dubious