Bad times among CEOs. We spent several days telling how Elon Musk’s arrival on Twitter caused chaos in his offices, and one of the consequences this caused was the departure of many companies that advertised on the social network.
Apparently, Apple may have been among the companies that decided to withdraw their advertising campaigns from Twitter. Pour got Elon Musk to unceremoniously dig up the hatchetpointing fingers at both Apple itself and Tim Cook.
Wave of tweets against Apple and its App Store
Apple has largely stopped advertising on Twitter. Do you hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do you hate free speech in America?”
What’s going on here @Timcook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“What’s going on here, Tim Cook?”
From here, Musk has started posting tweets critical of Apple, accusing the company of censorship and relying on tactics like the video they made at Epic Games parodying the 1984 ad:
Who else has Apple censored? https://t.co/lZculFIkAX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Exactly https://t.co/1PRfh67nWX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
He has also asked in a poll whether Apple should publicize any “censorship” it has done, stating that it has threatened Twitter to remove its application from the App Store, recalling the 30% tax on store Developer:
Apple should publicize any censorship measures it takes that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but doesn’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
This news has drawn multiple criticisms on social media for calling the app store fee “secret”, although the company has never tried to hide it in its terms and conditions:
Did you know that Apple levies a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through its App Store? https://t.co/LGkPZ4EYcz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Elon ends with this tweet (I’m literally typing these words as Elon tweets randomly), it’s quite a declaration of war:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
In less than 10 minutes, this tweet gained more than 42,000 likes. Apple hasn’t confirmed that it has pulled its advertising campaigns from Twitter, but it sounds like something must have been high profile for Musk to use his social network to deliver these challenging messages.
And now this? Spring It looks like Apple and Twitter are more at odds than ever, especially when Elon Musk resorts to app store fee bypass for his new social network monetization strategies. We’ll be watching for any reaction they might have from Cupertino.