Elon Musk claims Apple “threatened to withhold Twitter” from the App Store

Published: 2022-11-28T19:31:10

Updated: 2022-11-28T19:31:17

After pulling its ads from Twitter, new CEO Elon Musk now claims that Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store.

Since Musk took over Twitter after a massive $44 billion acquisition, the platform has entered a period of significant instability.

From the shock launch of paid verification system Twitter Blue, to the unbanning of controversial figures like Andrew Tate and Donald Trump, the social media site has seen advertisers start to leave in droves.

But now Musk and Twitter are at odds with Apple, as the Tesla CEO claims the Twitter app may not stay in the App Store.

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Musk claims that Apple is threatening to remove the Twitter app

In a series of tweets on November 28, Elon Musk fired at the tech giant for its decisions to pull advertising from Twitter.

Musk called Apple CEO Tim Cook for answers on the decision, but neither Cook nor Apple have publicly commented on any decision to pull ads from Twitter.

But Musk claims that Apple is not only removing Twitter ads, but may even remove the site from the App Store. This would mean that Twitter is potentially only available on iOS devices through a web browser.

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Again, neither Apple nor Apple representatives have commented on the veracity of these allegations.

The internet’s responses to the claims were predictably quite divided, with many of Musk’s opponents saying that Apple refusing to advertise or host Twitter is the epitome of free speech, which the CEO claimed Apple “hate hate”.[s]”.

Others, however, have compared Twitter’s possible removal to Epic Games’ removal from the App Store, saying the move would be an example of Apple’s monopoly power.

Actually, Musk He seemed to agree with this interpretation, citing the retweet of the Fortnite 1984 video that was made in response to Epic Games’ removal of the word “Accurate”.

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This case involved a dispute between Apple and Epic Games over the division of revenue from items purchased in the Fortnite app on iOS devices.

Apple chose to remove the Fortnite app because the developer included a payment method that would avoid having to pay Apple’s 30% discount. The case eventually ended up in court, where a judge ruled that Apple should allow developers to include alternative payment options.

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