Twitter: Elon Musk has declared “war” on Apple

In buying Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk is saddling his horse to lead what he says is a free-expression crusade. One of his first acts was to recover blocked accounts, such as that of former US President Donald Trump.

Only Apple doesn’t seem to be on the same wavelength as the Tesla and SpaceX boss. In a series of tweets posted last night, Elon Musk 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, but above all simply to forcibly stop the distribution of advertising on the network. “Apple has threatened to remove Twitter from their 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 dominance.

In his usual restraint, Elon Musk accuses: “Do they really hate freedom of speech in America? “, he began, before challenging the leader of the California group in the following terms: “What’s going on, Tim Cook? “.

In fact, Apple, like other platforms, has the right to control in terms of moderation and cyber security. And freedom for the apple brand does not mean doing nothing.

Many brands such as General Motors or Pfizer have already suspended their advertising on the platform. The catch is that 90% of Twitter’s revenue is 90% ad revenue… Apple was the largest advertiser on the network in the first quarter of this year, spending $48 million, or more than 4% of quarterly revenue, according to the Washington Post. Suffice it to say that the exit of these companies threatens 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 called “Elon” pulling off the freeway in the direction of “declaring war” instead of “paying 30%” – Apple’s commission for user spending made through the app store – right away.

Many app publishers, most notably Epic Games (Fortnite), have spoken out publicly in recent years against the 15% to 30% commission charged by Apple and Google on spending through their app stores. Except that the courts have so far ruled in favor of Apple.

Apple has not yet responded.