Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk attacked Apple this week, accusing the company of hating “free speech,” and claiming it has threatened to pull the Twitter app from its App Store.
According to CNBC, the Twitter app is still available for download from the App Store and there’s no indication that the social media platform is about to be removed.
Musk’s latest volley of Apple insults began last week, and he claimed in a tweet this week that Apple had largely stopped advertising on Twitter.
He tried to publicly raise the subject of the reduced advertising with Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking him on Twitter “what’s going on here” and questioned if Apple hates “free speech in America.” According to CNBC, Cook did not respond to the baiting.
If Musk’s claims are true, Apple would not be the only company to cut back on its Twitter ad campaigns since the platform changed hands.
After the deal closed on Oct. 28, the platform was inundated by a wave of racist and antisemitic comments, partly due to raids that were coordinated by users of the chat platform 4chan, CNBC reports.
Musk also fired or accepted the resignations of a staggering percentage of Twitter’s workforce, including sales and content moderation teams, among others.
Twitter has been hemorrhaging advertisers and ad revenue ever since, with civil rights groups and former advertisers calling on Musk to prove that his diminished team can handle ad campaigns, content moderation, cybersecurity, and other aspects of the platform.
Musk’s allegation that Apple has “threatened to withhold” Twitter from its App Store may ring true with other developers, according to CNBC.
Apple is well-known for giving limited feedback when informing developers that their apps are in danger of experiencing delayed updates or removal from the App Store. Responses on Apple’s App Store Connect platform generally cite a rule but do not go into detail about what an app maker needs to do to fix the problem.
Musk has also taken issue with Apple’s platform fees, which come to 15% to 30% of total digital sales. Prior to his acquisition of the company, Musk called the fees a “de facto global tax on the internet” and he has increasingly decried them since becoming an app owner.
According to CNBC, Musk tweeted and then deleted a meme this week that implied he would “go to war” before paying 30% to Apple.