Elon Musk has some issues with Apple and its CEO, Tim Prepare dinner—and as Twitter’s new proprietor, Musk is tweeting all about it.
On Monday, Musk said that Apple has “largely stopped” promoting on Twitter. He requested: “Do they hate free speech in America?” He then added, “What’s happening right here @tim_cook?”
If what Musk stated is true, and Apple has stopped promoting on Twitter, it’d be an enormous blow to the platform’s income. And it’d be another main advertiser to depart the service after Musk’s latest acquisition—following others like Volkswagen, Pfizer, and Chipotle.
Earlier this month, Musk acknowledged the issue, tweeting that “Twitter has had an enormous drop in income,” blaming activist teams for allegedly pressuring advertisers.
“Nothing has modified with content material moderation and we did the whole lot we may to appease the activists,” Musk wrote. He added: “Extraordinarily tousled! They’re making an attempt to destroy free speech in America.”
Within the first quarter of this 12 months, Apple was the highest advertiser on Twitter—spending $48 million on advertisements—in accordance with the Washington Put up, which cited a doc compiled from Twitter’s inner knowledge. That accounted for greater than 4% of Twitter’s total income for that quarter.
Musk additionally claimed that Apple has “threatened to withhold” Twitter’s app from Apple’s App Retailer, “however gained’t clarify why.” He didn’t present extra particulars about any ban.
Apple didn’t instantly reply to Fortune’s request for remark.
Nonetheless, Apple’s App Retailer head, Phil Schiller, deactivated his private Twitter account this month.
On Monday, Musk additionally requested his almost 120 million followers about Apple’s “secret” tax.
“Do you know Apple places a secret 30% tax on the whole lot you purchase by their App Retailer?” He wrote, referring to the minimize Apple takes on subscriptions and different purchases made by iOS apps.
It’s not the primary time Musk has criticized Apple for its 30% minimize. Earlier this 12 months, earlier than shopping for Twitter, he tweeted: “Apple’s retailer is like having a 30% tax on the Web. Undoubtedly not okay,” and that it’s “actually 10 occasions larger than it ought to be.”
However nonetheless, Musk appears to be having fun with the struggle, posting a meme with two roads: one which pays 30% and one which goes to warfare (as he put it), with a automotive rushing within the path of warfare that he’s titled “Elon.”
Beforehand, one other tech mogul complained about Apple’s 30% fee—Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Final 12 months, he stated the 30% Apple takes makes it “more durable” for creators to generate income from their work.
In a previous weblog submit, Fidji Simo, then head of Fb’s app wrote: “We hope Apple will take into account completely altering its requirement for apps to make use of its fee processing platform in addition to scale back the related 30% tax. Such a excessive tax locations a disproportionate and pointless monetary burden on small companies, significantly those who depend on different platforms, comparable to Fb, to attach with their viewers as a result of they lack the sources to develop their very own app.”
Zuckerberg and Prepare dinner have had their variations prior to now. Final 12 months Apple launched a privateness function that required customers to particularly choose into letting apps like Fb or Instagram monitor them throughout different apps. It was an enormous blow to Fb’s on-line advert enterprise, which partly relied on the information to gauge its customers’ pursuits.
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