Elon Musk Bloats Tiff With Apple As 'Battle For Future Of Civilization'

Elon Musk says he has launched a “revolution” and a “battle for the future of civilization” against Apple and Tim Cook, Andrew Griffin reported for The Independent.

Photo Insert: Apple’s rules allow it to remove apps that include problematic content – which it has done so before with other social networks such as Parler – though Cook has publicly expressed hope that the same would not need to happen with Twitter.

Musk’s comments came after he claimed that Apple had threatened to keep Twitter out of the App Store and said doing so would be limiting freedom of speech.

He complained that Apple could stop people downloading the app, that it had pulled its ad spending on Twitter amid fears over the future of the platform, and that it is able to take a cut out of any payments made through iPhone apps. But he insisted that his fight with Tim Cook’s company was about more than just Twitter revenues. Instead, he said that it is “a battle for the future of civilization.”

Musk roared on Twitter: “If free speech is lost even in America, tyranny is all that lies ahead.” He also claimed that his fight with Apple was a “revolution against online censorship in America,” and observers laughed themselves hoarse.

Musk’s recent volley of complaints against Apple began on Monday, when he started tweeting about the company and its App Store policies. Twitter must act in accordance with those policies or be removed from the App Store, which would make all iPhone users unable to download the app.

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” his first post read. He followed that up with a reply in which he tagged chief executive Tim Cook and asked “what’s going on here.”

Many advertisers have pulled out of paying for posts on Twitter, amid fears that doing so is “high-risk” because of Musk’s allowing a flood of foul content and hate speech. Apple is among Twitter’s biggest advertisers, many of whom have stopped spending on the social platform.

Musk has posted that “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” Yet, Musk himself had been deleting accounts, particularly those who have criticized him correctly or those who pricked his bloated ego, without any explanation.

Apple’s rules allow it to remove apps that include problematic content – which it has done so before with other social networks such as Parler – though Cook has publicly expressed hope that the same would not need to happen with Twitter. Musk also attacked the cut that Apple takes from apps that are sold through the store or subscriptions sold on the iPhone.

Apple said it pays for services such as payment processing and moderation of apps on the store.

Musk may be attacking that cut because it will be charged when users buy his new $8 “Twitter Blue” service on an iPhone. He has seemingly looked to boost subscriptions to that service, in part to offset the reduction of money from advertisers concerned about the future of Twitter.

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