- Ben Drico
- BBC – San Francisco
Musk has accused Apple of exerting influence over cyberspace and charging for downloading apps
Billionaire Elon Musk said that Apple has stopped most of its on the social networking site Twitter, accusing the communications technology giant of threatening to delete the platform from its App Store.
Musk’s attack on Apple comes following several companies stopped spending on ads on the social networking site Twitter, amid concerns regarding the company’s new owner’s plans to oversee the site’s content.
The BBC attempted to obtain Apple’s comment on these statements, but the company did not respond to any of these attempts.
The company’s president said earlier that Twitter is witnessing a “massive” decline in revenue due to activists’ pressure on advertisers.
In a series of tweets on his account on the social networking site Twitter, Musk accused Apple of practicing “censorship”, directing several criticisms of the communications technology company, including that it imposes fees on its sales through its own application store, the “App Store”.
He added, “Apple stopped on Twitter. Do they hate freedom of speech in the United States?”
He directed his speech to Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, asking: “What’s going on, @ tim _ cook?”
Despite what the CEO of Twitter claimed that Apple threatened to delete the social networking platform application from the App Store, Musk did not explain the reason that might push Apple to do so.
Musk, who acquired Twitter last month for $44 billion, is facing pressure because a large number of companies have stopped spending on ads on the Twitter trading platform.
And the CEO of the social networking company revealed some ideas to increase Twitter revenues, including converting the account verification service into a paid registration to the site and application. But so far, most of the company’s revenue is still generated from .
Several companies, including Cheerios, General Mills and Volkswagen, have announced they will stop on Twitter in the past few weeks.
And Media Matters, a website that specializes in following up news on social media platforms, monitored that half of the major advertisers on Twitter stopped their ads on this platform due to concerns regarding the future directions of the platform, led by Musk’s management.
Omnicom, Apple’s agency, has recommended Silicon Valley giants to temporarily stop on the social networking platform Twitter due to concerns regarding “brand integrity,” according to the US technology website The Verge.
As part of his battle with Apple, Elon Musk sparked a debate regarding the influence Apple exercises over online activity through the App Store, an app that enables iPhone users to download games and other applications.
It is likely, according to its current position, that Apple will receive regarding 30 percent of the money that Twitter plans to charge some users as registration fees.
And Musk posted on Twitter a sarcastic tweet saying, “Pay 30% … go to war,” through a picture showing a road sign to indicate directions with an arrow heading up and the other heading to the right pointing to the phrase “with another picture of a car written on it” Musk “heading towards right.