Elon Musk claims Apple has 'threatened to remove' Twitter from its app store

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(CNN) --

Elon Musk claimed Monday that Apple has "threatened" to remove Twitter from its iOS app store, a move that could be devastating for the company Musk just acquired for $44 billion.

"Apple also threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store, but won't tell us why," Musk said in one of several tweets on Monday targeting Apple and its CEO for alleged moves that could undermine Twitter's business.

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In another tweet, Musk claimed that Apple has virtually stopped advertising on Twitter.

“Do they hate free speech in America?” he said, in an apparent reference to his often stated desire to reinforce his idea of ​​free speech on the platform.

"What's going on here [Apple CEO] Tim Cook?" Musk added in a follow-up tweet.

He also criticized the size of Apple, claimed that he engages in "censorship" and mentioned the 30% transaction fee Apple charges large app developers to get listed on its app store.

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The storm of tweets highlights the tenuous relationship between Musk and Apple, which along with Google serve as the primary gatekeepers to mobile apps.

Long before he took over Twitter, the Tesla CEO said that when the car company was falling on hard times, he considered selling the company to Apple, but that Cook refused to meet with him.

Removing Apple's app store, or Google's, would be detrimental to Twitter's business, which is already struggling with a loss of advertisers following the Musk acquisition and a difficult initial attempt to expand its subscription business.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Musk's tweets.

The company has previously shown that it is willing to remove apps from its store due to concerns about their ability to moderate harmful content or if they try to circumvent the slice Apple gets from in-app purchases and subscriptions.

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In January 2021, Apple removed Parler, an app popular with conservatives, including some members of the far-right, from its app store following the attack on the US Capitol over concerns about the platform's ability to detect and moderate hate speech and incitement.

Parler returned to the Apple App Store three months after updating its content moderation practices.

In its official App Store review guidelines, Apple lists several security parameters that apps must meet to be listed on the store, including the ability to prevent "content that is offensive, insensitive, annoying, intended to disgust, exceptionally tacky, or just plain creepy," such as hate speech, pornography, and terrorism. "If you're looking to shock and offend people, the App Store isn't the right place for your app,” the guidelines state.

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Several civil society groups, researchers and other industry observers have raised concerns about Twitter's ability to effectively moderate harmful content and keep the platform safe following widespread layoffs and mass employee departures in the company.

Musk has also claimed that he wants to amplify "free speech" on the platform and has begun to restore some accounts that were previously banned or suspended for repeatedly violating Twitter's rules.

Musk himself has shared a conspiracy theory and several other controversial tweets since he took over as owner of Twitter.

Musk, long a prolific and antagonistic tweeter, hasn't let up at all since taking over the company.

And what he may have lost in revenue, he's claimed he's made up for in compromise.

Part of the strategy seems to relentlessly target enemies, either his personally or "free speech."

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In an interview with CBS earlier this month, Cook was asked if there's any way Twitter could change that would cause Apple to remove it from the app store.

“They say they're going to continue to moderate and so…I'm counting on them to do it,” Cook responded.

“Because I don't think anyone really wants hate speech on their platform.

So I'm counting on them to continue to do that."

In an op-ed published in The New York Times last week, Twitter's former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth, who left the company earlier this month, suggested that Twitter had already begun taking calls from store operators. of apps after Musk took control.

Roth said the company's breach of Google and Apple's app store rules could be "catastrophic."

And last weekend, the head of Apple's app store, Phil Schiller, deleted his Twitter account.

While the status of Apple and Twitter's relationship is unclear, the iPhone maker was running Black Friday ads on the platform last Thursday, according to posts seen by CNN.

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Many companies have cut spending on digital advertising in recent months due to the downturn in the economy, and Twitter has likely always been only a small part of Apple's ad budget.

However, Apple's impact on Twitter could be far more significant, even if Musk manages to shift his core business to rely more on subscription revenue and potentially have to pay a 30% cut to Apple.

In a tweet Monday, Musk asked his nearly 120 million followers if they knew that "Apple puts a 30% secret tax on everything you buy through its App Store."

In another tweet, he posted an image of a freeway exit: one lane heading toward "pay 30%," the other toward "going to war."

An old car labeled "Elon" skidded into the latter.

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