Home » Twitter/X News • US business news » Elon Musk says Apple “hate free speech” and claims company threatened to remove Twitter from App Store
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Elon Musk has launched a spectacular rant against Apple for threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store without giving a justification.
The billionaire also claimed Apple has pulled its advertising from Twitter.
He took to Twitter - which he now owns - to claim the tech giant hated free speech.
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On Monday, November 28, Musk announced the potential App Store ban in a series of tweets.
He tweeted: “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.”
Musk accused Apple of having a problem with Twitter's content moderation.
Musk said "yes" when asked by a journalist user if Apple was "threatening Twitter's presence in the App Store or otherwise making moderation demands."
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Twitter's former head of trust and safety, who left after Musk's takeover, warned earlier this month of a "catastrophic" expulsion from the Apple and Google app stores.
Yoel Roth said any removal from such app stores would make it "difficult for billions of potential users to use Twitter's services."
Apple's app policies say the corporation will reject apps "for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line”.
Earlier this month, Apple's App Store chief Phil Schiller canceled his Twitter account.
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Musk's tweets raised speculation Twitter's connection with a key app distributor was deteriorating.
Apple reinstated Parler, the rightwing social network owned by US rapper Ye, in 2021 after the app changed its content and moderation policies, the firm said at the time.
Musk stated an hour before revealing the App Store threat that Apple had almost quit advertising on Twitter.
He tweeted: “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?”
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He then directly tweeted Apple CEO Tim Cook, asking"what's going on here?"
Apple spent an estimated $131,600 on Twitter ads between November 10 and 16, down from $220,800 the week before Musk clinched the Twitter deal.
Musk recently tweeted a jibe about Apple charging software developers a 30 percent fee for in-app purchases.
He posted a meme that said he was prepared to "go to war" with Apple instead of paying the fee.
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Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist," has alarmed advertisers who are concerned that he will enable hate speech to proliferate on Twitter.
Many major corporations, including General Motors and Chipotle, have suspended their Twitter spending.
Their view has been bolstered by a bungled revamp of Twitter's verification service, which led to a slew of impersonator - including many of Musk himself - accounts on the network.
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Musk announced a "general amnesty" for permanently banned Twitter accounts last week.
This prepared the door for the return of figures like former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon and rightwing UK commentator Katie Hopkins.
Musk has already restored Trump's account, though the former US president has yet to use it since his return to Twitter.
Source: The Guardian
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