One of the agencies that Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is tasked with downsizing is the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — the very same agency that will decide whether Musk's social media platform X will be permitted to offer mobile payment services à la Paypal.
Musk has claimed that he's policing himself and has no conflicts of interest between his business ventures and his new government role. But experts say that assertion is a joke.
National Public Radio spoke with Richard Cordray, who led the CFPB under President Barack Obama.
"The fact that Musk is now engaged in payment businesses that would be regulated by the CFPB at the same time he's trying to tear down the CFPB puts in sharp relief the conflicts of interests here and how much this disserves the general public," Cordray said. "The whole situation is rife with conflicts of interest."
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Last week on X, Musk wrote, "CFPB RIP," with an emoji of a gravestone.
According to NPR, "X, formerly Twitter, announced it had struck a deal with Visa to soon offer a mobile payments service, cementing the card giant as the first major partner in a feature called 'X Money Account.'"
"This service would be directly regulated by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau under expanded oversight powers it had finalized late last year allowing the agency to police things like privacy issues, fraud and how disputed transactions are handled at mobile payment apps like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, PayPal, Cash App — and X's money service."
The NPR report concluded, "In taking a hatchet to the CFPB, Musk is not only potentially clearing regulatory oversight of new money services on X, but delivering a win to other Silicon Valley giants, which have for years been fighting against the bureau, according to lawmakers and advocacy groups that rail against Big Tech."