What is Elon Musk doing?
Twitter’s new owner decided to pick a fight with Apple on Monday, posting a slew of tweets criticizing the tech company and a meme claiming he would “go to war” with the iPhone maker.
It appears Musk’s issue with Apple was sparked by a dispute over the future of the Twitter app. Musk alleged in a tweet that Apple is “planning to withhold Twitter from the App Store.”
While it’s currently unclear if there are actual plans by Apple to do so, Musk has previously addressed the possibility of the issue before. Musk claimed over the weekend that he would look into creating his own smartphone if Apple took action against the Twitter app.
Apple has previously removed apps from the App Store over content that did not abide by the company’s policies. The most analogous example was when Apple removed the right-wing social media platform Parler from its App Store shortly after the events of Jan. 6, when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol building. Parler’s lax content moderation policies were quickly put in the spotlight, showing just how much hate and violent rhetoric was allowed on the platform. Both Apple and Google booted the app from its respective app stores at the time. Given Musk’s current direction for Twitter, it appears he believes the app will suffer the same fate. Researchers have found an increase in hate speech on Twitter since Musk took over and reinstated numerous formerly banned accounts, like Donald Trump’s.
Musk began his Apple-related tweet tirade by first calling out the company for allegedly no longer advertising on Twitter.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk tweeted, even tagging Apple CEO Tim Cook in a followup. “What’s going on here @tim_cook?”
If Apple did stop advertising on Twitter, it’s certainly not alone. A new report found that half of Twitter’s biggest advertisers have stopped spending money on ad campaigns on the platform since Musk took over due to various concerns regarding brand safety. Musk himself acknowledged the fleeing advertisers not long after he took over.
In his Twitter rant, Musk highlighted some replies from users who shared issues they had with their apps being included in the App Store over content-related concerns.
“Who else has Apple censored?” Musk tweeted before sharing a parody video created by Fortnite developer Epic Games when the company had its own battle with Apple over App Store policy back in 2020.
The Fortnite creator’s 2020 dispute with Apple was over the iPhone maker’s 30 percent revenue cut for all in-app purchases, a significant amount for Epic Games which had reportedly brought in over $1 billion on iOS. Epic rolled out a workaround for its users to bypass Apple’s cut, which resulted in Apple removing Fortnite from the App Store. The massively popular game has not appeared in the App Store since.
Musk should note, however, that Epic Games could afford to play hardball with Apple as only around 7 percent of Fortnite’s revenue came from iOS. Twitter is much more dependent on Apple. Around 80 percent of Twitter users access the platform via their mobile device. Apple dominates the smartphone space in the U.S., with more than 50 percent of the overall market share. In addition, when Twitter’s paid subscription plan Twitter Blue was live, it was only available to iOS users.
Musk then decided to move on from battling Apple over its paused Twitter ad campaigns and its App Store content policies, and instead focus on that “secret” 30 percent App Store revenue cut.
“Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?” asked Musk about Apple’s well-publicized revenue sharing deal with its developers.
Some Twitter users replied to Musk showing him video and screenshots of then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs announcing the App Store revenue split at the public Apple iPhone event in 2008.
It seems unlikely that Musk will be able to change Apple’s mind on its 30 percent commission. Again, if Fortnite’s billions couldn’t do it, the 150,000 Twitter users paying $8 for Twitter Blue through iOS in-app purchases probably won’t do the trick either.
Regardless of what one’s opinion is of how Musk has been running Twitter since he acquired the company and took it private last month, publicly “going to war” with Apple is likely to be a losing battle.
