Did a Saudi Prince’s investment in Twitter have anything to do with the recent Twitter censorship announcement? Most of Twitter’s users seems to think so.

As we reported back in December, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal purchased a stake in Twitter at $300 million. At the time, the purchase was described by Talal as being “a suitable opportunity to invest in promising, high-growth businesses with global impact.”

Talal owns Kingdom Holdings Company. The company owns stakes in Apple, Time Warner, Citigroup, Pepsi, General Motors, Walt Disney and News Corp. Twitter was the first social media giant that Talal saw fit to invest in.

There was already some speculation back in December that the move was an act of self-preservation with one analyst saying that he was using the Twitter investment to prevent any further revolutions in the region.

Twitter users have latched onto the news and are squarely pointing the blame at Talal as the reason behind the recent change in Twitter’s policy.

Did Twitter decide to apply localized censorship due to pressure from Prince Talal? We’ll most likely never know.

Do you think Talal’s investment in Twitter led to their new policy? Or is this all just one big conspiracy theory? Tell us in the comments.