Elon Musk’s Twitter might be taken down by Apple after disregarding its policies and regulation.
In a just recent tweet, the CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk revealed that Apple has plans to remove Twitter from its app store. According to him, the decision comes without any explanation. Infact, Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter, he added in another tweet.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
In follow-up tweets by Elon, he talks about Apple jostling his idea of free speech on the platform.
Elon Musk further calls Apple and its owners out over free speech. He asked the company to publish all the censorship that it has taken over consumers.
Secret suppression of free speech by Apple. Customers were never told. What the hell is going on here?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Also, he questioned the 30% fee that Apple charges large app developers to be listed on Apple’s store.
However, Apple is yet to respond to any of the claims by Elon Musk.
Previously, Apple has taken actions to remove apps from its store that does not comply with its policy concerning harmful content.
In other cases, Apple is willing to remove platforms from its app store, apps that try to narrow through the cut placed on in-app purchases and subscriptions.
An example of this is Parler, a social media app. In 2021, during the issue of the US Capitol attack, Apple removed the app from its app store.
This was a result of the platform moderating violence and hate speech. However, Parler was returned three months after modifying its content policies.
Apple has listed its store review policies and guidelines that apps must adhere to. Some of them include offensive content; insensitive; upsetting; intended to disgust; in exceptionally poor taste; or just plain creepy.”
Elon’s Free Speech might not be able to function with such a policy by Apple in place.
Concerns about Free speech are one issue that Apple takes very seriously.
Debates over free speech
Over the past month, since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the issue of free speech on the platform has been debated. And many have raised issues with how the platform plans to moderate the content that would be coming on the platform.
This is after Elon began to raise his voice preaching free speech, And then he decides to restore some suspended accounts to the owners. An example is the account of the former President of the US, Donald Trump.
While all this was going on, he had also schemed to retrench some of the staff.
What happens if Apple makes the move against Musk’s Twitter?
A move like that from the iOS company would be very devastating for the company, undermining the company which was acquired for $44 billion.
Also, since Twitter’s acquisition, the company has been going through a lot. This will add to the already existing problems of the company.
Following Elon’s takeover of the company, the company has lost advertisers. Also, some of the staff resigned while others were retrenched by the company.
The decision will worsen the activities of the company and also slow the revenue that the company makes off the platform.
What does this mean?
This shows the significance of the power Apple has over Twitter and it might just be what will keep Elon Musk in check with his recent actions.
Also, it highlights the kind of relationship the platforms share. Some time ago when Tesla was having issues, the CEO considered selling the company to Apple. However, the CEO of Apple refused to meet.
Although this might not mean anything, the relationship between the companies is unclear.
Interestingly it’s not only Apple that Twitter might have to face but Google and other concerned platforms. A former staff, head of trust and safety, Yoel Roth said that Twitter had begun to receive calls from app operators concerning some decisions of the company. He adds that choosing to ignore the policies of Google and Apple might be a catastrophe for Twitter.
“Failure to adhere to Apple’s and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking Twitter’s expulsion from their app stores and making it more difficult for billions of potential users to get Twitter’s services,” Yoel Roth.
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