There’s a small war brewing between the world’s most valuable company, Apple, and Elon Musk. Last night, Elon Musk went on a rant using his newly-owned social media platform, Twitter, to try and expose Apple for not advertising on the social media network since Musk turned it into a dumpster fire. The Tesla owner acquired Twitter in October and has since caused some major damage with his tyrant management tactics. Musk has fired staff, damaged company profit and sparked other controversies with his Blue Tick program.
Since the issues started, Apple has reportedly pulled all advertising from Twitter. Apple was Twitter’s top advertiser spending $48 million on ads during the first quarter of 2022. This accounted for more than 4% of Twitter’s revenue during that quarter. Elon Musk isn’t happy that Apple has stopped spending money on the social media platform and decided to put pressure on the company and the CEO, Tim Cook in a series of rants.
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In a tweet, Musk called on Apple saying that the company has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. He asked if they “hate free speech in America”. Musk also claims that Apple has threatened to withhold Twitter from the App Store but hasn’t described why.
Of course, Elon Musk didn’t provide any specifics or proof that Apple has threatened to remove the app from the App Store. However, given Twitter’s new direction, it wouldn’t come as a surprise. Apple is known for blacklisting apps that host violence, hate speech and other problematic content. Sadly, Twitter has become that platform of late due to the calmer restrictions Musk has put in place.
If Apple were to remove Twitter from the App Store it would spell danger for Elon Musk and his new playground. It would mean new users would be unable to download the app and existing users would not be able to update it.
Elon Musk also referenced the last Apple controversy between the company and Epic Games when it removed Fortnite from the App Store after the developer broke the terms of use. Musk then hosted a poll to his 119 million followers asking whether or not they think Apple should “publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers”.
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Apple has yet to comment on the matter.
Source: WashingtonPost
