"Battle for the future of civilization": Twitter boss Elon Musk wants to "go to war" against Apple

Created: 11/29/2022 13:29

By: Patricia Huber

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, there was a crisis in the company.

Now there is also a threat of a “war” with the tech giant Apple.

San Francisco – Elon Musk takes on Apple.

After taking over the short message service Twitter, he is now heating up the dispute with the tech giant again.

In a series of tweets on Monday (November 28), the tech billionaire first questioned whether Apple hated free speech in America.

After all, the company largely stopped advertising on Twitter after selling the platform to him.

Then the Tesla boss claimed that Apple threatened to remove the Twitter app from the App Store without giving any reason.

Apple initially did not respond to the tweets.

Elon Musk: Companies stop advertising after Twitter takeover

Musk bought Twitter for around $44 billion at the end of October and is now giving the online service a drastic realignment.

This includes the fact that, in his view, Twitter has restricted freedom of speech too much in recent years.

In recent years, Twitter has taken increasingly consistent action against hate speech, calls for violence and false claims about the corona virus.

Musk also unlocked several accounts that were popular in the right-wing scene, which had been blocked for homophobic and racist statements, among other things.

Given the changes being enacted, many large companies are reluctant to be active on Twitter—they don't want their brands to appear alongside offensive tweets.

The Volkswagen Group and the pharmaceutical group Pfizer, among others, stopped their advertising on the platform.

Apple is a particularly important advertiser for Twitter: According to the Bloomberg financial service, the iPhone group spent more than $100 million a year on ads.

In 2021, Twitter generated sales of a good five billion dollars.

Because of "secret submission": Musk with declaration of war on Apple

A conflict between Musk and Apple has been brewing for some time.

Musk is a thorn in the side of the 15 to 30 percent levy that is due on app platforms for subscription revenues generated within the app.

He announced that Twitter would focus more on subscription revenue rather than advertising.

On Monday, he again attacked a "secret 30 percent levy" that Apple is charging for purchases in the App Store.

In one photo, he hinted that he "wanted to go to war" on the other hand.

As usual, after Musk's tweets, his fans formed on the online service, who also attacked Apple.

Twitter could evade the fees charged by the download platforms if users took out subscriptions on the web instead of in the app.

The streaming heavyweights Netflix and Spotify, among others, chose this path.

The game company Epic, on the other hand, tried to circumvent the subscription fee with a trick.

Apple threw its game app "Fortnite" from the App Store - and a court ruled it legal after an Epic lawsuit.

Elon Musk: "Battle for the Future of Civilization"

Musk also tried to explain his actions with a political motive.

“This is a battle for the future of civilization.

When freedom of speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead," he wrote in another tweet.

Approving reactions came mainly from right-wing users.