Elon Musk on Monday claimed that Apple Inc. is “threatening to withhold Twitter” from its App Store and implied the big tech giant hates “free speech.”
Musk’s comments about the iPhone maker come following several events that have led to speculation that Apple or Google would potentially block Twitter from their app stores. The head of Apple’s App Store appeared to delete his account last week, while Apple removed all the Twitter posts from its official account around the same time—although Cook’s account is still active.
Also last week, Musk wrote he would make his own phone if Apple and Google were to jettison Twitter from their stores. “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” he said.
Apple and Cook have not publicly commented on Musk’s claims or on whether the company would pull Twitter from its App Store. The Epoch Times has contacted Apple for comment.
Censorship?
If Apple pulls Twitter from its App Store, it would mean that the social media platform’s app won’t be available on any iOS-using devices other than a web browser.Such a tactic was deployed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and others against free speech-promoting social media platform Parler in January 2021, which was decried as a form of censorship and monopolistic. A similar platform that is popular with conservatives, Gab, was removed by Apple from its App Store years before that.
Apple, the world’s most valuable firm, spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between Nov. 10 and Nov. 16, down from $220,800 between Oct. 16 and Oct. 22, the week before Musk closed the Twitter deal, according to ad measurement firm Pathmatics.
A rising list of companies ranging from General Mills to automaker Audi of America have stopped or paused advertising on Twitter since Musk’s acquisition.
The reason for this, Musk recently wrote on his platform, is because left-wing activist groups have pressured advertisers into dropping Twitter. Ad sales make up a significant amount of Twitter’s revenue.
Left-wing groups and activists have also complained after Musk’s Twitter restored accounts belonging to former President Donald Trump, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), James Lindsay, Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, and more. Musk last week also announced “amnesty” for some suspended users, although he has said, on multiple occasions, that he won’t restore InfoWars host Alex Jones’ account.
LBRY, a publisher, said it, too, had a negative experience with alleged Apple censorship.
“Who else has Apple censored?” Musk wrote in a Twitter post in response.
It came as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan, Chengdu, and other Chinese cities to protest the Chinese Communist Party’s “zero-COVID” regime. Last week, a separate demonstration broke out at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China, that manufactures iPhones.
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