By buying Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk has straddled his hobbyhorse to lead, according to him, a crusade for freedom of expression.
One of his first actions was to reinstate accounts that had been banned, such as that of former United States President Donald Trump.
Only Apple does not seem on the same wavelength as the boss of Tesla and SpaceX.
In a series of tweets published last night, Elon Musk has just declared "war" on the Apple brand.
According to him, Apple is threatening not only to withdraw the social network from its application store, the Apple store, and above all has just put a violent halt to the distribution of advertisements on the network.
“Apple has threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store, but they refuse to tell us why,” protests Elon Musk after a series of tweets accusing the Apple brand of censorship and abuse of a dominant position.
In his usual restraint, Elon Musk accuses: “Do they hate freedom of expression in America?
“, he launched before challenging the leader of the Californian group in these terms: “What is happening Tim Cook?
".
The Twitter Files on free speech suppression soon to be published on Twitter itself.
The audience deserves to know what really happened…
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
In reality, Apple, like other platforms, has the right to review moderation and cybersecurity.
And freedom for the apple brand does not mean doing anything.
Already, many brands like General Motors or Pfizer have suspended their ads on the platform.
The catch is that 90% of Twitter's revenue is 90% dependent on advertising revenue… According to the Washington Post, in the first quarter of this year, Apple was the largest advertiser on the network with $48 million in spend. , or more than 4% of quarterly revenue.
Suffice to say that the departure of these companies jeopardizes the very existence of Twitter.
In addition, Elon Musk accuses the Apple brand of using its dominant position to charge exorbitant commissions.
Elon Musk posted a parody image of a car named "Elon" taking a freeway exit heading to "declare war" instead of continuing straight to "pay 30%", Apple's commission on user spending made through the app store.
Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?
https://t.co/LGkPZ4EYcz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Many application publishers, Epic Games (Fortnite) in the lead, have publicly spoken out in recent years against the 15 to 30% commission charged by Apple and Google on spending through their application stores.
Except that the courts have so far ruled in favor of Apple.
For the time being, Apple has not reacted.