Elon Musk accused Apple Inc of threatening to remove Twitter Inc from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets on Monday that also said the company had stopped advertising on social media giant Twitter.
Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and Twitter, claimed that Apple was pressuring Twitter over content moderation.
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The action, not confirmed by Apple, would not be unusual as the business usually enforces its policies and previously removed apps like Gab and Parler.
Parler, a U.S. conservative’s preferred platform, was brought back by Apple in 2021, as the app updated its participation and moderation methods, the companies explained at that time.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?,” Musk, who took Twitter private for $44 billion last month, said in a tweet.
He later tagged Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook’s Twitter account in another tweet, asking “what’s going on here?”
The trillion dollar tech company didn’t respond to requests for comment.
I was not aware of how far up the Apple food chain this idea originated. Not knowing this, I am not taking this story very seriously, said Randal Picker, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.
The world’s most valuable firm spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between November 10 and November 16, down from $220,800 between October 16 and October 22, the week before Musk closed the Twitter deal, according to a reporting firm called Pathmatics.
In the first quarter of 2022, Apple ranked as the top advertiser on Twitter and spent $48 million; more than 4% of its total revenue was made during this time. The Washington Post cited an internal Twitter document in its report.
