Bad tide among CEOs. We spent several days telling how Elon Musk’s arrival on Twitter caused chaos in his offices, and one of the consequences that caused was the departure of many companies that advertised on the social network.
Apparently, Apple could have been one of those companies that decided to pull its advertising campaigns from Twitter. Cast forced Elon Musk to unceremoniously dig up the hatchetpointing at Apple himself and Tim Cook.
Wave of tweets against Apple and its App Store
Apple has pretty much stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“Apple almost stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?”
What is happening here @tim_cook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“What’s going on here, Tim Cook?”
From there, Musk began posting tweets criticizing Apple, accusing the company of censorship and building on tactics like the video they made at Epic Games parodying the “1984” ad:
Who else did Apple censor? https://t.co/lZculFIkAX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Accurate https://t.co/1PRfh67nWX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
He also asked in a poll if Apple should publish all the “censorship actions” he has done, saying he threatened Twitter to remove his app from the App Store and reminded of the 30% tax for store developers:
Apple should publish all the censorship measures it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Apple also threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
This post received several criticisms on social networks, since it calls the App Store fee “secret” while the company has never tried to hide it in its terms and conditions:
Did you know that Apple imposes 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 while Elon tweets indiscriminately) it’s one hell of a declaration of war:
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
In less than 10 minutes, this tweet gained over 42,000 love. Apple hasn’t confirmed that it pulled its ad campaigns from Twitter, but it seems something must have been known in high places for Musk to use his social network to deliver this set of empowering messages.
And now what? Good It looks like Apple and Twitter are going to be more at odds than ever, especially if Elon Musk resorts to dodging App Store fees for his new monetization strategies on the social network. We will be attentive to any reaction they may have from Cupertino.
