Twitter owner Elon Musk accused Apple of waging war on the social media platform it recently bought and “waged against” Apple over its App Store rules. Musk has also joined those who oppose Apple’s 30 percent commission through the App Store, which is the only gateway for apps to reach more than a billion mobile devices.
The billionaire CEO also tweeted that Apple “threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store, but did not say why.”
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk also asked, “Do they hate freedom of speech in America?” He posted a tweet tagging Apple CEO Tim Cook, accusing the company of “massively stopping advertising on Twitter”.
Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Both Apple and Google require social networking services in their app stores to have effective systems for moderating harmful or abusive content. But since he took over Twitter last month, Musk has laid off about half of Twitter’s workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation. An unknown number of people resigned voluntarily.
Musk has also reactivated previously banned accounts, including those of former US president Donald Trump. Yoel Roth, the former head of trust and security at Twitter, who left after Musk took over, said in a column in the New York Times that “failing to follow Apple and Google’s guidelines would be disastrous” and “risk of being kicked out of app stores.”
Describing himself as a “freedom of speech fighter”, Musk believes that all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter as well, and describes his actions as “a revolution against online censorship in America.” The famous billionaire, in a statement he made the other day, signaled that he could make his own phone if Apple and Google kicked Twitter out of their app stores.
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