Elon Musk claims Apple is threatened with withdrawing Twitter from the App Store, ready to ‘go to war’ for in-app purchases

Elon Musk accused Apple of threatening to block Twitter Inc from its app store without specifying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the iPhone maker had stopped advertising on the social networking platform. The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla says Apple is putting pressure on Twitter over content moderation requirements.

The move, which has not been confirmed by Apple, would not be unusual as the company has regularly enforced its rules and has removed previous apps like Gab and Parler. The companies said at the time that the latter, popular with conservatives in the United States, was restored by Apple in 2021 after it updated its content and moderation practices.

“Apple most have stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate freedom of speech in America?” musk last month, said in a tweet.

He then tagged Apple’s CEO by Tim Cook Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?”

Apple did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Randal Picker, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School, said: “It’s not clear to me how far that idea has gone up the Apple food chain internally, and if I didn’t know that, it’s not clear how any implementation would have been done. any of this seriously.” Schools.

The world’s most valuable company spent about $131,600 (about Rs 1,0742,900) on Twitter ads between November 10 and November 16, down from $220,800 (about $1.80) .23,385 Rupees) between October 16 and October 22 during the week. before Musk closed the deal with Twitter, according to ad measurement firm Pathmatics.

In the first quarter of 2022, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million (about Rs. 391 crore) and accounting for more than 4% of total revenue for the period, the Washington Post reported, citing an internal Twitter document.

Twitter did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment on the report.

‘Go to war’

Among the list of complaints Musk tweeted was the up to 30% fee Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases, with Musk posting a meme showing his willingness to “cause trouble.” war” with Apple rather than paying a commission.

The fee has attracted criticism and lawsuits from companies like Epic gameproducer fortresswhile attracting the scrutiny of regulatory agencies around the globe.

The committee may consider Musk’s attempt to increase subscription revenue at Twitter, in part to make up for the loss of advertisers due to concerns about content censorship.

Companies from General Mills to American luxury carmaker Audi have stopped or paused Twitter advertising since the acquisition, and earlier this month Musk said the company has seen “huge” drop in revenue.

Ad sales make up about 90% of Twitter’s revenue.

Self-described free-speech autocrat whose company in the past few days has restored several Twitter accounts, including that of the former President of the United States Donald Trumpblamed activist groups for pressuring advertisers.

Ben Bajarin, head of consumer technology at research firm Creative Strategies, says Musk may be reading too much into a typical process Apple goes through during app review.

“App review from Apple isn’t perfect in any way and is a frustrating process for developers, but from what I’ve heard it’s a two-way conversation,” he said. .

© Thomson Reuters 2022