Via a series of tweets he shared, Twitter’s CEO Elon Musk claimed that Apple threatened to take down the Twitter app from App Store as part of its app review moderation process. “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why,” he tweeted.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
In other tweets he shared on Monday, he declared Apple’s App Store fees a “secret 30 percent tax.” He also shared a poll requesting from his followers and fans if “Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers.” He didn’t stop there. The Twitter boss also claimed that Apple has pulled most of its advertising from Twitter.
Elon Musk’s claim that Twitter wants to pull down Twitter from its App Store would mean a huge problem for Twitter because App Store is the only way to distribute software to iPhones, unlike Android devices. This would mean that Twitter would lose a major distribution channel, making its platform available to iPhone users only via the web.
App makers are required by Apple to pay between 15 percent and 30 percent of the sales of digital products sold via their apps. Elon Musk is grooming Twitter Blue to become a new source of income for the company by raising money from subscriptions. This would require him to pay a commission to Apple, thereby losing millions of dollars to Apple because of this policy.
Apple has declined requests for comments on Elon Musk’s claims but there are indications that the company is watching Twitter closely to see if any App Store policies get violated.
Twitter has been under fire in recent weeks for reasons such as its failed blue verification tick which has seen famous people leave the platform, etc. Elon Musk, however, promised to relaunch the Twitter Blue product, but bigger and better this time.
Paul Femi Balo is the founder and publisher of TechBooky. He covers artificial intelligence, African technology, digital infrastructure, enterprise technology and the global digital economy.
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