The head of the U.S. Social Security Administration has backed down from "shutting down the agency" after a federal judge rebuked him for misinterpreting a court ruling that limited billionaire Elon Musk's access to agency information.

The Social Security Administration’s acting commissioner said he will not shut down the agency in the wake of a judge’s order to halt access to the SSA’s data by staff of the entity known as the Department of Government Efficiency.