Twitter and Apple are at odds. Musk Claims Apple Threatened Him

Last Updated on 11/29/2022 by てんしょく飯

Elon Musk has expressed his dissatisfaction with Apple’s reduction of advertising on Twitter, and further tweeted that Apple “threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store, but won’t tell me why.

They threatened to remove it from the App Store.

On Monday, November 28, Musk posted a tweet in which he described Apple and Google’s app stores as a “secret 30% tax” for charging a 30% fee from the in-app purchase process and further surveyed “whether Apple should disclose all the censorship they have done to influence their customers.” He posted a tweet surveying the public.

Musk, who purchased Twitter for $44 billion, is in the process of turning the loss-making social networking platform into a money-making tree. He has made a series of controversial changes, including a massive layoff, disbanding the moderation team and public relations department, and reinstating accounts that had been permanently banned.

He also turned Twitter Blue, a paid service, into a new revenue stream, effectively turning it into a clearinghouse for authentication badges. This, however, led to a surge in spoofing and confusion, which in turn created confusion.

Currently, Twitter relies on advertising for the majority of its revenue, but the lack of moderation and confusion has made it unpopular with advertisers and has led to moves that have alienated large advertisers, including Volkswagen. Omnicom Media Group, Apple’s media agency, was also concerned about “brand safety” and recommended that clients suspend advertising on the platform.

The lack of content moderation could also violate Apple’s App Store guidelines. In 2020, Apple temporarily removed Parler, a small but rival social networking service to Twitter, from the App Store for inadequate moderation within the service. At that time, Parler was restored after it was modified to meet the guidelines.

The Washington Post reported that Apple is one of Twitter’s largest advertisers, spending $48 million on advertising to Twitter in the first quarter of 2022. And nonprofit watchdog site Media Matters for America reported last week that half of Twitter’s top advertisers have dropped their ads due to concerns about its direction.