Elon Musk accuses Apple of pulling its Twitter adverts

On Monday, Musk said that Apple has “principally stopped” promoting on Twitter. He requested: “Do they hate free speech in America?” He then added, “What’s occurring right here @tim_cook?”

If what Musk mentioned is true, and Apple has stopped promoting on Twitter, it’d be an enormous blow to the platform’s income. And it’d be another main advertiser to depart the service after Musk’s latest acquisition—following others like Volkswagen, Pfizer, and Chipotle. 

Earlier this month, Musk acknowledged the issue, tweeting that “Twitter has had a large drop in income,” blaming activist teams for allegedly pressuring advertisers. 

“Nothing has modified with content material moderation and we did every thing we may to appease the activists,” Musk wrote. He added: “Extraordinarily tousled! They’re attempting to destroy free speech in America.”

Within the first quarter of this yr, Apple was the highest advertiser on Twitter—spending $48 million on adverts—in accordance with the Washington Submit, which cited a doc compiled from Twitter’s inside knowledge. That accounted for greater than 4% of Twitter’s general income for that quarter. 

Musk additionally claimed that Apple has “threatened to withhold” Twitter’s app from Apple’s App Retailer, “however gained’t clarify why.” He didn’t present extra particulars about any ban.  

Apple didn’t instantly reply to Fortune’s request for remark. 

Nonetheless, Apple’s App Retailer head, Phil Schiller, deactivated his private Twitter account this month.

On Monday, Musk additionally requested his almost 120 million followers about Apple’s “secret” tax. 

“Do you know Apple places a secret 30% tax on every thing you purchase via their App Retailer?” He wrote, referring to the reduce Apple takes on subscriptions and different purchases made via iOS apps.

It’s not the primary time Musk has criticized Apple for its 30% reduce. Earlier this yr, earlier than shopping for Twitter, he tweeted: “Apple’s retailer is like having a 30% tax on the Web. Undoubtedly not okay,” and that it’s “actually 10 occasions larger than it must be.”

However nonetheless, Musk appears to be having fun with the combat, posting a meme with two roads: one which pays 30% and one which goes to conflict (as he put it), with a automobile dashing within the course of conflict that he’s titled “Elon.”

Beforehand, one other tech mogul complained about Apple’s 30% fee—Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Final yr, he mentioned the 30% Apple takes makes it “tougher” for creators to become profitable from their work. 

In a previous weblog publish, Fidji Simo, then head of Fb’s app wrote: “We hope Apple will think about completely altering its requirement for apps to make use of its fee processing platform in addition to scale back the related 30% tax. Such a excessive tax locations a disproportionate and pointless monetary burden on small companies, notably those who depend on different platforms, resembling Fb, to attach with their viewers as a result of they lack the assets to develop their very own app.”

Zuckerberg and Cook dinner have had their variations up to now. Final yr Apple launched a privateness function that required customers to particularly decide into letting apps like Fb or Instagram monitor them throughout different apps. It was an enormous blow to Fb’s on-line advert enterprise, which partly relied on the information to gauge its customers’ pursuits.  

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