Elon Musk lashes out at Apple

Elon Musk is lashing out at Apple for allegedly threatening to remove Twitter from the App Store. According to the new Twitter owner, the move was made without reason being given to the social media platform. He tweeted: “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.”

Currently using Twitter on iPhones requires users to download it first on the App Store, which makes the app store a vital part of Twitter’s distribution strategy. According to CNBC, Apple's former chief marketer who oversees App Review, Phil Schiller also removed his Twitter account. In subsequent tweets, Musk railed against Apple’s 30% “tax” on in-app purchases.

Musk also added that Apple had stopped advertising on the Twitter platform. According to the Washington Post  Apple is a top advertiser on Twitter, having spent around US$48m on ads on the platform in the first quarter of 2022.

Musks against the iPhone maker comes after several big brands also halted their spend on Twitter amidst concerns around content regulation and brand safety. Some of these brands include Mondelez, Balenciaga, General Mills and many others.

Twitter has been having many issues, and one of them was the recent situation that users have been impersonating brands on Twitter after Elon Musk changed the criteria for acquiring a verified account. Under the change a user only has to pay for a US$7.99 monthly subscription to be verified on Twitter. This has seen several well known brands such as Pepsi, Nestlé and Tesla being falsely represented by fake accounts. 

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