In a series of tweets on Monday, Elon Musk took aim at Apple, alleging that the tech giant had threatened to ban Twitter Inc. from its app store without providing any justification.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla and Twitter also claimed that Apple had stopped running advertisements on the social media site and was exerting pressure on Twitter to comply with its demands for content moderation.
Musk tweeted, “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Apple hasn’t commented on the situation, although the corporation has previously taken similar steps. Previously, the App Store removed apps like Gab and Parler due to moderation difficulties.
The firms noted at the time that Parler, a popular app among US conservatives, was reinstated in 2021 after it changed its content and moderation procedures. In a subsequent post, he included Apple CEO Tim Cook’s Twitter handle and questioned, “What’s going on here?”
Twitter’s revenue has fallen drastically since Musk took over
Since Musk took charge, Twitter’s revenue has drastically decreased. Due to worries about hate speech and uncertainty regarding Musk’s content moderation policies, a number of sponsors have left the platform. About 90% of Twitter’s revenue comes from ad sales. He has said that activists are to blame for putting pressure on advertisers to leave the platform.
According to ad monitoring company Pathmatics, Apple spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter advertisements between November 10 and November 16, down from $220,800 between October 16 and October 22, the week before Musk concluded the Twitter transaction.
Musk continued by criticizing Apple for charging a fee for in-app purchases. Musk claimed in a tweet that Apple charges software developers a commission of up to 30% for in-app purchases and said he would rather “go to war” with Apple than pay the price.
The price has prompted a number of lawsuits from businesses like Epic Games, the developer of “Fortnite,” and it has also slipped international authorities’ notice. The committee might influence Musk’s efforts to increase Twitter’s subscription revenue.