White House Declines Comment On Elon Musk's Twitter Buyout But Says Wider Social Media Concerns Remain

U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Monday declined to comment on Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk’s $44 billion takeover of Twitter Inc TWTR, Reuters reported on Monday, citing a White House spokesperson.

What Happened: Biden has long been concerned about the power of social media platforms and had last month in his State of the Union address warned of the “harms of social media”, especially on children.

"Our concerns are not new," the report said, citing White House spokesperson Jen Psaki.

"The president has long talked about his concerns about the power of social media platforms, including Twitter and others, to spread misinformation."

Biden’s administration has also been advocating revoking Section 230, a law that provides immunity for website platforms concerning third-party content.

See Also: Twitter CEO Says No Job Cuts Planned Until Elon Musk's $44B Takeover Closes

Why It Matters: Musk on Monday clinched a deal to buy Twitter and vowed to defeat spambots and make the microblogging site a free speech arena.

“Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated, ” Musk said in a tweet after announcing the deal.

The world’s richest man said that Twitter has "tremendous potential", and he "looks forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it".

Price Action: Twitter shares closed 5.6% higher at $51.7 on Monday and were trading 0.4% up after the bell.

Read Next: Fisker CEO Disappears From Twitter As Elon Musk Seals Takeover

Photo by AgnosticPreachersKid on Wikimedia