Earlier this week, Musk claimed that Apple has threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store and has also “mostly stopped” advertising on the platform. He posted a string of tweets targeting the company. Musk alleged that Apple censored free speech in the past and is distancing itself from the social media platform because he is promoting free speech. The Twitter CEO even questioned the company’s App Store policies, including the 30 percent cut it takes from developers’ revenue. He tagged Tim Cook in one of the tweets and asked: “what’s going on here?” While the Apple CEO didn’t respond to Musk on Twitter, he agreed to meet his Twitter counterpart personally at Apple headquarters. And, there was a surprise in store for Musk. Tim told him that Apple doesn’t have any plans to remove Twitter from the App Store and that it was all a misunderstanding. “Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store,” Musk tweeted on Wednesday. “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.” Musk never revealed who originally informed him about Apple’s issues with the Twitter app. But, there have been concerns that his “free speech absolutist” stance could weaken the platform’s moderation policies. It could eventually lead to an increase in hateful conduct on the social network, something Apple doesn’t want to associate itself with. Twitter’s former head of trust and safety recently said that Apple had flagged some issues with the app shortly after Musk’s takeover.
Elon Musk may have asked the Apple CEO about advertising
Musk didn’t reveal what else he talked about during the meeting with Tim. He may have asked his Apple counterpart about the company’s decision to cut down advertising on the social media platform. Apple has been one of Twitter’s biggest advertisers over the years. But it has drastically reduced its ad spending on the social network in recent weeks. Well, there has been a broader pullback from advertisers on Twitter since Musk’s takeover. Advertisers seem to have lost trust in the company because of all the chaos and instability as it undergoes a massive transition. Twitter is now trying to win back the trust by saying that it hasn’t changed any of its policies. The company recently laid out the plans for its next chapter, aka Twitter 2.0. Time will tell if Twitter will be able to lure all the advertisers back on the platform.
