X "unfit" for banking because of complicity in Saudi spying, lawyers argue

[DBoon]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2023/09/x-unfit-for-banking-because-of-complicity-in-saudi-spying-lawyers-argue/

Just two weeks after Elon Musk took over Twitter in fall 2022, he told employees that his big plan to save the social media platform from bankruptcy was to turn it into a bank. Since then, he has rebranded the platform as X, and banking regulators in eight US states have approved his applications for money-transmitting licenses.

Now, as X continues filing for money-transmitting licenses—in pursuit of turning X into an "everything app," a one-stop destination where users bank, shop, communicate, and basically spend all their time online—US banking regulators are being urged to reconsider approving X's applications to provide financial services, The Guardian reported. And Ars confirmed that states that already granted licenses are being pressured to revoke them.

In an open letter reviewed by Ars, lawyers at Walden Macht & Haran LLP—who are representing a Saudi family suing Twitter/X—warned both “attorneys general and banking commissioners across 50 states” that Musk's company should be considered "unfit" to hold banking licenses. They alleged that X is unfit for banking due to its alleged treatment of users’ personal data and "intentional complicity" in human rights violations. These grievances, The Guardian reported, also call into question whether X "can be trusted to abide by federal and state laws protecting consumer data and records."

That particular lawsuit against Twitter was initially filed in May, alleging that former Twitter employees—who were charged in 2019 with conspiring with the Saudi regime to silence more than 6,000 dissidents—violated Twitter's terms of service by unmasking anonymous Twitter accounts run by Saudi users like human rights activist Abdulrahman Al-Sadhan. After Twitter's employees identified Al-Sadhan to the Saudi government, Twitter allegedly never notified him before he was reportedly kidnapped, tortured, and imprisoned in 2021—sentenced to 20 years for posting tweets mocking the royal family.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. I will NEVER do business with X. NEVER. /nt

[AnnaLee]

2. Ummmmmmmmmmmmm

googX, amazX, googamazX

[Attilatheblond]

3. Pro-Putin megalomaniac with ability to move money around for people?

What could possibly go wrong?

[dlk]

4. Is it a stretch to think Musk would be doing money laundering for the Russians, and others?

Do we really need another person with no conscience in the banking industry?

[CloudWatcher]

5. +1000000 (rubles)

[Joinfortmill]

6. WTHF

[paleotn]

7. Why ANY state banking regulator would even consider giving him a money transfer license

is beyond me. WTF where they thinking? Idiots.