Elon Musk has chosen the next target for his fans to go after: Apple.
Over the course of the last week, Musk has already threatened to build his own phone company if Apple were to continue to impose its 30% commission on products sold through the Twitter app. Musk is no doubt, like many other companies, frustrated with what they perceive to be a 30% tax on their business for operating on Apple’s App Store.
Today, Musk turned that pressure against Apple up to 11, tweeting a number of attacks against the company for not just its App Store rules, but for slowing down its advertising efforts on the platform. In one tweet, the Twitter CEO confirmed that Apple has slowed down its ad buys on the platform and asked if “do they hate free speech in America?”
The Chief Twit also tried to rile up his fanbase by asking “did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?” This was quickly tagged by Community Notes, Twitter’s feature that allows users to note the context of a tweet, saying that “This is not a secret. Apple takes a 30% fee from all sales made through their In-App Purchase system, which accounts for processing. It’s not a tax.”
Musk also claimed that “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” In a final tweet of the day (at least as of the writing of this article) the Twitter owner tweeted a well-known meme that implied he was going to war with Apple over its 30% commission on sales through the App Store.
We’ll have to see if Apple makes any move in response to Elon taunting the company. It’s known for being quiet and shrewd so, if it does make any moves against Twitter, it’s likely to be measured and in response to an actual violation of its App Store rules if the social media app makes one.
In the meantime, we can all ponder if Apple banning Twitter would be exciting.
