Elon Musk Starts Up Feud With Apple Over Its Twitter Advertising Efforts
Another day, another story of chaos at Twitter. This time, Chief Twit Elon Musk finds himself up against one of the largest players in the technology industry—Apple.
The billionaire recently revealed that the company halted most of its advertising on the social media network, and allegedly threatened to remove the platform from its Apple App Store.
While the firm has yet to comment on the matter, it’s no secret that Twitter’s revenue has been steadily declining due to an advertiser exodus, with Musk admitting there’s been a “massive” dropoff.
In a series of his own tweets (where else?), the world’s richest man accused Apple of “censorship,” and questioned if it hated “free speech in America,” directly mentioning the company’s CEO, Tim Cook.
What’s going on here @tim_cook?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Furthermore, Musk took issue with the 30% fee Apple is known to charge for in-app purchases, such as Twitter Blue. The subscription’s relaunch has been delayed again due to this ongoing feud with Apple, as per Mashable.
This fight could come at great expense to Twitter, with the Washington Post reporting had received US$48 million from Apple, its top advertiser, in Q1 2022 alone.
Will the social media platform survive this blowback from advertisers? We’ll have to stick around and find out.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
[via BBC and Mashable, cover image via Boumenjapet | Dreamstime.com]
