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Bezos Shades Musk’s Twitter Takeover, Questioning Chinese Influence

Careful, Jeffrey—he’ll shadowban you.

Two can troll at that game. Jeff Bezos took aim at Elon Musk on Monday night, with the Amazon founder raising the possibility of increased Chinese influence over Twitter after news of the Tesla chief’s $44 billion takeover deal of the platform was announced hours earlier. The jibe began after New York Times journalist Mike Forsythe tweeted out a series of observations on the links between Tesla and China, suggesting that the CEO’s deal may lend China some sway over Twitter in light of his company’s business interests there. Bezos quote-tweeted Forsythe, writing: “Interesting question. Did the Chinese government just gain a bit of leverage over the town square?” Spice having been duly sprinkled, the world’s second-richest man (behind Musk) then returned roughly 90 minutes later with a softer take. Answering his own question, the mogul and space enthusiast said censorship was “probably” not close at hand, suggesting instead that the takeover might make things more difficult for Tesla in China. “But we’ll see,” Bezos concluded. “Musk is extremely good at navigating this kind of complexity.”

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AJ McDougallBreaking News Reporter

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