Social Security is covering up area staff and transferring all public communication to X

Sources told Wired that the Social Security Agency will no longer communicate with the media and the public through press releases and “Dear Colleagues” letters as it transfers its public communication specifically to X. The news comes within the layoffs of the main personnel of the agency’s layoffs.

“We no longer plan to issue a press release or letter from those dear colleagues to inform the media and the public about changes in procedures and services,” SSA Regional Commissioner Linda Kerr-Davis said in a meeting with managers earlier this week. “Instead, the agency will use X to communicate with the press and the public…so this will become our communication mechanism.”

Previously, the agency used letters from dear colleagues to interact with advocacy groups and third-party organizations to help people get social security benefits. The agency wrote that recent letters cover the agency’s new identity verification process to updates on the accuracy of SSA’s death record (“less than one-third of 1% are falsely reported deaths and need to be corrected,” the agency wrote, compared to Elon Musk’s claims, the agency wrote).

Letters and press releases are also key communication tools for SSA employees, who use them to keep proxy news. Since SSA employees are unable to register social media on government computers without making special security requirements, the change could negatively impact employees’ ability to work.

It may also affect people receiving Social Security benefits rely on letters to obtain information about access to benefits. “Do they really hope that the elderly will join this platform?” asked a current employee. “Most managers don’t even have the grasp. Isn’t this a conflict of interest?” another staff member added: “This will ensure that the public does not have the information needed for the latest information.”

The Social Security Bureau did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Linda Kerr-Davis also did not immediately respond to Wired’s request for comment.

Elon Musk, who led the allegations that represent President Trump to fundamentally reduce the size of the federal workforce, bought X (then Twitter) in October 2022. The platform has been fighting the spread of misinformation for years. After purchasing the company, Musk fired the contract content host and transferred the work of content review to a crowdsourcing fact-checking tool called community notes. In 2023, an EU official warned the platform as a major source of fake news, based on a commissioned study that reported “Twitter has the highest discovery” of false information.

Sources told Wired that the regional office workforce will soon be reduced by 87%. Regional office staff manage IT support, policy issues, labor relations issues, reasonable accommodation guidance and public relations. SSA has laid off 7,000 jobs since February Washington Post.

Today, the agency has 547 employees in nearly a dozen regional offices (previously, the number was close to 700, but many have retired, an employee with an informed number said the number of the employee was known). After the cut, this number is expected to approach 70. “We know that all of you rely on these people to manage your frontlines to help solve problems,” said Kerr-Davis, who works at the Kansas City area office. “I’m very frank here that support will be very little until we stand in a thin area office.”

Kerr-Davis acknowledged that the restructuring could limit the agency’s ability to combat fraud, a primary goal of what Elon Musk calls the government’s efficiency division. “Losing a subject expert won’t lead to fraud, waste and abuse directly?” she asked the phone, reading the question from the SSA staff. “Yes, I mean, we do rely on [their] Help…things will break, they will break quickly. ”

During the call, Kerr-Davis resigned. “I know this may be new to you, and that’s true for me,” she said. “It’s not something we’re used to, but we’re in different times now.”

Vittoria Elliott and David Gilbert contributed the report.