X Shareholders' ties to Russian oligarchs under scrutiny

A company linked to the sons of Russian oligarchs has been found to be among the shareholders of the X social media platform owned by billionaire Elon Musk, raising questions about Moscow's influence on the technology sector.

According to The Washington Post, X's former investors and employees sued the company for not receiving their salaries, resulting in the disclosure of its shareholders to the public.

In July this year, lawyers for the nonprofit organization the Committee to Protect Press Freedom on behalf of independent tech journalist Jacob Silverman asked the court to disclose X's shareholders.

In response, the court ordered X to share the full list.

As part of the court order, X disclosed the names of around 100 shareholders. However, it said many of them represent different funds controlled by the same firm or individual.

The list includes many individuals and companies, including Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter; Prince Al-Walid bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a member of the Saudi royal family; 8VC, a venture capital firm founded by Joe Lonsdale, a co-founder of Palantir Technologies, a software company that collects and processes people's data for use in intelligence; and investment firms such as Baron Opportunity Fund and Andreessen Horowitz.