The richest man in the world, Elon Musk, has officially declared war on the world’s largest technology company.
Musk accused Apple of censorship and monopolistic practices in a series of tweets, claiming the company had “already stopped” Twitter advertising and questioned whether Apple and its CEO Tim Cook “hate free speech in America.”
“Apple has also threatened to block Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why,” Musk wrote on the social network.
The reason
Musk criticized the 30% commission Apple takes on most of the company’s sales through the App Store. The billionaire posted a photo of a road sign with two options: “Pay 30%” or “go to war,” with a car in front of the sign choosing the “go to war” route. However, the picture was later not found on the billionaire’s profile.
And other companies have previously criticized Apple’s 30% App Store fee. This has led to an ongoing legal battle between ‘Fortnite’ video game maker Epic Games and the tech giant.
In addition to Epic Games, Apple faces challenges over App Store fees and policies from companies like Spotify. With Musk, on the other hand, it will hardly be easy, also because the billionaire attracts worldwide attention and the dispute with him could represent Apple’s biggest challenge so far.
This isn’t the first time Musk has criticized Apple’s App Store. In May, Musk said the 30% commission was “literally 10 times what it should be.” But tensions are about to escalate and the feud between Musk and Cook is out in the open.
In general, Elon Musk is no stranger to criticizing other high-profile billionaires by tweeting criticisms of Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates.
Musk took over Twitter last month and has since fired half of the company’s employees, including those working to fight disinformation. Many employees have left the company.
It seems that some companies do not want to be associated with Twitter. Last week, giant Volkswagen announced the suspension of advertising for all of the company’s brands “until further notice”.
The billionaire has restored banned accounts, including that of former US President Donald Trump and others.
