Elon Musk, Twitter’s new owner and Tesla founder, last week said he would consider an ‘alternative phone’ should the microblogging site platform get removed from Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store.
Now, in a series of tweets on Monday aimed at Apple and its CEO, Musk has accused the company of “threatening” to withhold the Twitter app from its app store. He also claimed on Monday that “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?”
He said that the iPhone maker is not spending on Twitter ads in a bid to force the company to change its content moderation and freedom of speech.
In a follow-up tweet in the thread, Musk even went on to tag Apple CEO Tim Cook questioning the idea of free speech on the platform, “What’s going on here @tim_cook?”
What’s going on here @tim_cook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself. The public deserves to know what really happened….” he wrote in another tweet.
Musk also said in a separate tweet that Apple has threatened to boot Twitter from the App Store, which is one of the largest markets for free and premium apps. He tweeted that Apple did not say why it would do so.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
In another tweet, he asked: “Who else has Apple censored?” and then launched a Yes/No poll: “Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers.”
In other tweets fired off on Monday morning, Musk slammed Apple for charging up to 30 percent fee for in-app purchases to software developers to be listed in its App Store. He also touched upon the topic of the Epic Games trial and shared a meme with two options “Pay 30%” or “Go to War” – suggesting that he was ready to go to war with Apple. However, this tweet was later deleted.
“This is a battle for the future of the civilization. If free speech is lost in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead,” he writes.
Ever since Musk has taken over Twitter for $US44 billion ($A66 billion) at the end of October, the microblogging platform has seen a massive drop in its revenue. Revenue from advertisements accounts for about 90 percent of Twitter’s business.
If Apple pulls out the Twitter app from its App Store, it could be detrimental to the microblogging site’s business, which is already struggling with a loss of advertisers since Musk has taken over.
Apple and Tim Cook are yet to comment on Musk’s tweets.
