November 5, 2022—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut is raising national security concerns about Elon Musk‘s recent takeover of Twitter. Musk bought the social media company for $44 billion in part with financing from equity investors. Up to 5 percent of the loans came from Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal and Qatar.
In a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the senator asked the Treasury Department‘s office overseeing foreign investments to use its legal authority to review the deal. Specifically, the senator asked the office known as CFIUS “to examine whether any degree of Saudi influence over Twitter’s operations or access to user data could foreseeably be used to silence government critics and human rights activists, or to further state-sponsored disinformation campaigns.”
