WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Murphy on Monday known as for a direct investigation into the nationwide safety implications of Saudi Arabia’s stake in Twitter after Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media firm.
Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat who leads a key Senate International Relations subcommittee, despatched a letter to the Committee on International Funding in the USA, generally known as CFIUS, requesting a assessment of the financing of Musk’s $44 billion buy of Twitter, together with from members of the Saudi royal household and the dominion of Qatar.
“The aim of those opinions is obvious: to guard the nationwide safety pursuits of the USA and Americans,” Murphy wrote to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who leads CIFIUS.
The committee is liable for reviewing transactions that would end in an American enterprise being managed by a overseas entity, Murphy mentioned, including that CFIUS additionally should assessment non-controlling overseas investments in some American companies which have delicate private information on U.S. residents.
“Setting apart the huge shops of knowledge that Twitter has collected on Americans,” he mentioned, “any potential that Twitter’s overseas possession will end in elevated censorship, misinformation, or political violence is a grave nationwide safety concern.”
NBC Information has reached out to Twitter for remark.
In his letter, Murphy known as Saudi Arabia “one of the crucial repressive international locations on this planet, with little to no tolerance without cost expression.” He referenced the dying of Washington Put up journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi dissident who was murdered on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Late final week, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Firm and the personal workplace of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal mentioned they might assist Musk finance his Twitter deal by rolling over their possession of shares of the corporate price about $1.89 billion, based on an announcement tweeted by Alwaleed.
“Expensive pal “Chief Twit” @elonmusk. Collectively all the best way @Twitter,” Prince Alwaleed tweeted.
Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, led by Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, owns almost 17 % of Kingdom Holding, based on Reuters.
