Humza Yousaf fears Elon Musk has accessed his private Twitter messages following online spat

Humza Yousaf has shared his fears that Elon Musk may have accessed his private messages following a row between the pair.

The former first minister admitted he had double-checked his old correspondence posted on Twitter - since renamed X - following a veiled threat from the tech billionaire.

Yousaf and Musk clashed earlier this year after he branded the South African businessman "one of the most dangerous men on the planet".

The SNP MSP was sharply critical of Musk - the owner of the X social media platform - following comments he made in the wake of violent unrest in several English towns and cities in August.

Yousaf told an audience at the Edinburgh Fringe: "He is accountable to nobody, he has vast wealth at his fingertips and he uses it for some of the most wicked evil I've seen."

But Musk hit back in a series of messages: “He’s obviously super racist against white people. I dare that scumbag to sue me. Go ahead, make my day …”

In a second post Musk said: “Legal discovery will show that however big a racist he’s been in public communications, he is vastly worse in private communications.”

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Several users responded that Musk should release the ex-SNP leader's private messages.

Yousaf has now revealed the threat from Musk prompted him to go through his old communications.

"I am certain he has a whole team of people who are looking at any information they can gather on me and try to use it to besmirch my reputation," he told a podcast hosted by Tortoise Media this week.

Asked why he looked through his private messages to check if there was anything incriminating, Yousaf added: "It was more out of complete and utter confusion of what the heck he was talking about.

"A very pointed accusation that he’s trying to make, and most people who commented underneath are saying the same thing, you know, ‘Go on Elon, release his Twitter DMs’.

“I’m thinking, I’ve been on Twitter for a long time, have I made an off-colour joke? Have I said something in a private communication? So, I thought I better do the belt and braces thing, and as I say there was nothing there, and unsurprisingly so.”

He continued: “But here is somebody who is basically saying to me by the way ‘you better watch out; I’m going to release stuff on you and it’s going to make your life hell’.”

Asked whether he was concerned Musk’s reference to “private communications” may have been in reference to communications Yousaf had made outside of X, he said “that is genuinely the fear”.

The Tortoise podcast told its listeners there was no evidence to suggest that Musk has accessed Yousaf’s private messages, on or off of X, and that Musk has denied having ever accessed private messages on the platform.

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