© Alex KantrowitzSpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk
The US government is considering national security reviews of some of Elon Musk's ventures, including his Twitter takeover deal,
Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people with knowledge of the matter.
Musk's plans to purchase Twitter for $44 billion with the help of foreign investors, including Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, and Binance Holdings โ which was founded by a Chinese businessman โ have concerned Biden administration officials, the people told Bloomberg.
Officials are considering which tools they could use to review Musk's ventures, including action by the
Committee on Foreign Investment in the US (CFIUS), which reviews foreign takeovers of American businesses, per Bloomberg.
CFIUS carries out security reviews if a "transaction threatens to impair the national security of the United States," according to
federal regulations. When reviewing a transaction, the
CFIUS can recommend to the president that a deal be suspended or prohibited, per the regulations.If the Twitter acquisition was to be reviewed by CFIUS for national security reasons,
the agency could recommend to President Biden that he nix the deal โ something Musk himself has tried and failed to do in recent months.
Comment: Trying to stop violence by removing the weapons available just shifts the violence towards different and more available means. So while this may have the effect of reducing handgun violence it doesn't mean it will reduce violence overall.
Also, considering the greater context of the shift of Western governments towards ever more totalitarian proclivities and policies it isn't at all obvious that this ban is about gun violence at all. It's possible that the ban is intended to further restrict the ability of Canadians to defend themselves and resist tyrannical encroachment.