Elon Musk accuses Apple of withdrawing its Twitter ad
Elon Musk has some issues with Apple and its CEO Tim Cook — and as the new owner of Twitter, Musk is tweeting all about it.
Musk on Monday said that Apple has “largely stopped” advertising on Twitter. He asked, “Do you hate free speech in America?” Then he added, “What’s going on @tim_cook?”
If what Musk said is true and Apple stopped advertising on Twitter, it would be a major blow to the platform’s revenue. And it would be another big advertiser to leave the service following Musk’s recent acquisition — following others like Volkswagen, Pfizer, and Chipotle.
Earlier this month, Musk acknowledged the problem tweet that “Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue” and activist groups have been accused of allegedly pressuring advertisers.
“There has been no change in content moderation and we have done everything we can to appease activists,” Musk wrote. He added: “Extremely messed up! They are trying to destroy freedom of speech in America.”
In the first quarter of this year, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending $48 million on ads Washington Post, who cited a document compiled from Twitter internal data. That accounted for more than 4% of Twitter’s total revenue this quarter.
Musk too claims that Apple “has threatened” to withhold Twitter’s app from Apple’s App Store, “but won’t explain why.” He did not provide any further information about a ban.
Apple didn’t respond immediately assets Request for comments.
However, Apple’s App Store boss Phil Schiller deactivated his personal Twitter account this month.
On Monday, Musk also asked his nearly 120 million followers about Apple’s “secret” tax.
“Did you know that Apple has a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through its App Store?” He wrotewhich refers to the cutback Apple is taking on subscriptions and other purchases made through iOS apps.
It’s not the first time Musk has slammed Apple for the 30% cut. Earlier this year, before buying Twitter, he tweeted: “The Apple Store is like a 30 percent tax on the internet. Definitely not okay,” and that it’s “literally 10 times higher than it should be.”
Still, Musk seems to be enjoying the fight, Post a meme with two roads: one that pays 30% and one that goes to war (as he put it), with a car speeding toward war that he calls “Elon.”
Earlier, another tech mogul complained about Apple’s 30% commission – Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Last year he said the 30% Apple takes makes it “harder” for creators to monetize their work.
In a previous blog post, Fidji Simo, then head of the Facebook app, wrote: “We hope Apple will consider permanently changing its requirements for apps to use its payment processing platform and reducing the associated 30% tax.” Such a high tax places a disproportionate and unnecessary financial burden on small businesses, especially those who rely on other platforms like Facebook to engage with their audience because they lack the resources to develop their own app .”
Zuckerberg and Cook have had their differences in the past. Last year, Apple released a privacy feature that asked users to explicitly opt out of letting apps like Facebook or Instagram track them through other apps. It was a major blow to Facebook’s online ads business, which depended in part on data to gauge the interests of its users.
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