Tech giant Apple is fighting back against billionaire Elon Musk’s transformation of influential social media platform Twitter into a hub for open information and free speech.
On Monday, Musk revealed that Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from its App Store.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why,” Musk said.
Shem Horne points out that the threat is unlikely to be about Musk’s recent restoration of former President Donald Trump’s account.
Truth Social is allowed on their App Store, which means it isn't about President Trump or content moderation. It's about trying to bring you under control and make you submit to the lefts demands like the previous owners of Twitter did.
— Shem Horne (@Shem_Infinite) November 28, 2022
“Truth Social is allowed on their App Store, which means it isn’t about President Trump or content moderation,” Horne said. “It’s about trying to bring you under control and make you submit to the lefts demands like the previous owners of Twitter did.”
Musk earlier said that Apple had all-but-stopped advertising on Twitter.
Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter,” Musk said. “Do they hate free speech in America?”
What’s going on here @tim_cook?” he added, referring to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
In another sign of escalation, Elon Musk agreed that a parody of a famous 1984-themed ad from Apple was “accurate.”
Accurate https://t.co/1PRfh67nWX
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Conservative commentator Ashley St. Clair actually had a brilliant idea for Elon Musk, should the clash with Apple escalate.
Remove this free advertising for them. All tweets show device/social management service pic.twitter.com/LuNyBl4iAS
— Ashley St. Clair (@stclairashley) November 28, 2022
“Remove this free advertising for them,” she said. “All tweets show device/social management service.”
One digital publisher, LBRY, revealed that Apple had forced it to restrict search terms or be considered ineligible for the App Store.
During Covid, Apple demanded our apps filter some search terms from being returned. If we did not filter the terms, our apps would not be allowed in the store.
Apple may make good products, but they have been opposed to free speech for some time.
— LBRY 🚀 (@LBRYcom) November 28, 2022
“During Covid, Apple demanded our apps filter some search terms from being returned,”LBRY said. “If we did not filter the terms, our apps would not be allowed in the store. Apple may make good products, but they have been opposed to free speech for some time.”
Elon also ran a poll asking users if Apple should reveal its censorship actions to users.
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Musk also said that Apple puts a 30% tax on everything bought through its App Store.
Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store? https://t.co/LGkPZ4EYcz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
As Matthew Foldi of the Free Beacon pointed out, Apple has long engaged in anticompetitive behavior.
I think we know what’s going on here @elonmusk
Apple and Google have long used their app stores to engage in anticompetitive behavior. That's why it should come as no surprise that liberal activists are trying to get them to use app store to censorhttps://t.co/ZlnXrjyFho https://t.co/6doXeoEpvZ pic.twitter.com/NxObDwvohK
— Matthew Foldi (@MatthewFoldi) November 28, 2022
“Meta and Spotify both slammed Apple for anticompetitive behavior in its App Store through its ‘developer tax’,” an Examiner article states.
“Meta attacked Apple after it quietly updated its rules to require that certain transactions made in-app, such as purchases of NFTs or social media boosts, must be made through the App Store — thus making them subject to a 30% levy by Apple,” the article added.
Elon Musk, for his part, recently lauded Shopify for standing up to activists attempting to get content creators silenced.
Shopify has a published acceptable use policy and a principled process to apply it. Pressure groups on all sides try to influence it sometimes and CBC needs to see through that not amplify bad faith narrative
— tobi lutke (@tobi) November 26, 2022
“Shopify has a published acceptable use policy and a principled process to apply it,’ CEO Tobi Lutke said. “Pressure groups on all sides try to influence it sometimes and CBC needs to see through that not amplify bad faith narrative.”
“Good for you!” Musk responded.
Seth Dillon, Babylon Bee CEO, summed up the clash between Musk and Leftists demanding censorship of Americans’ speech.
Leftists: Musk will allow incitement to violence.
Musk: No, I won't. You can speak freely, but you can't incite violence.
Leftists: Speaking freely incites violence. Safety demands that you censor everyone but us.
Musk: 🤣
Leftists: Apple, do you hear this? Do something!
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) November 27, 2022
While Mollie Hemingway of The Federalist noted that Apple has long aided and abetted China’s oppression of the Chinese people.
Musk says Apple, which is currently doing much to support China's brutal and oppressive censorship regime against it people, is making censorship demands of Twitter. https://t.co/Ca8sKAs5SQ
— Mollie (@MZHemingway) November 28, 2022
Journalist Rita Panahi also noted Apple’s complicity with the Chinese regime during the current uprising against Covid Zero lockdowns.
@Apple mistreats its workers in China & is generally awful https://t.co/y3cht8RfgA
— Rita Panahi (@RitaPanahi) November 28, 2022
One of the major points of content for Musk’s critics is the disbanding of a ‘content moderation council’ opposed to free speech and diversity of political opinion on Twitter.
A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition.
They broke the deal.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 22, 2022
“A large coalition of political/social activist groups agreed not to try to kill Twitter by starving us of advertising revenue if I agreed to this condition,” Musk said. “They broke the deal.”
However, there is no credible evidence to support an uptick in “hate speech” on the platform. As Elon Musk recently pointed out, the metrics that Twitter used to track such alleged “hate speech” are down by one-third after his takeover.
The left’s campaign against free speech on Twitter has been at least partly successful, as a Washington Post analysis revealed this week.
“More than a third of Twitter’s top 100 marketers have not advertised on the social media network in the past two weeks, a Washington Post analysis of marketing data found — an indication of the extent of skittishness among advertisers about billionaire Elon Musk’s control of the company,” the Post said.
“Dozens of top Twitter advertisers, including 14 of the top 50, have stopped advertising in the few weeks since Musk’s chaotic acquisition of the social media company, according to The Post’s analysis of data from Pathmatics, which offers brand analysis on digital marketing trends,” the analysis continued.
“Ads for blue-chip brands including Jeep and Mars candy, whose corporate parents were among the top 100 U.S. advertisers on the site in the six months before Musk’s purchase, haven’t appeared there since at least Nov. 7, the analysis found. Musk assumed ownership of the site Oct. 27,” the Post added.
“Pharmaceutical company Merck, cereal maker Kellogg, Verizon and Samuel Adams brewer Boston Beer also have stopped their advertising in recent weeks, the Pathmatics data shows,” the story went on. “The companies didn’t respond to requests for comment from The Post.”
Elon Musk in recent weeks has taken his $44 billion investment in Twitter and transformed the website into one based more on free speech and transparency. Musk has restored former President Donald Trump’s once-banned Twitter account, granted a blanket amnesty to suspended conservative Twitter accounts, and even said that he would support Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis if he ran for president in 2024.
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OPINION: This article contains commentary which reflects the author's opinion.