On Wednesday Elon Musk said on Twitter that he had resolved the misunderstanding over the potential removal of Twitter from Apple Inc’s App Store after he met with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
In a tweet he noted, “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”
Musk had accused Apple on Monday of threatening to expel Twitter from Apple’s App Store without providing a reason, in a series of tweets which also pointed out that Apple had also stopped all advertising on Twitter since Elon Musk’s takeover of the social media giant.
In another exchange with another user, they related to Musk that their library app had been forced to censor various search terms relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, before being temporarily allowed on Apple’s platform. He went on to relate that it was then expelled over a user’s post featuring a cartoon frog which Apple moderators deemed offensive. In response, Musk tagged Cook’s Twitter account in a response to the Tweet, asking, “what’s going on here?” Cook never responded.
Musk then continued to assail Apple, drawing attention to the 30% fee Apple charged to developers to list apps on their platform, referring to it as a 30% tax on the internet. Musk included a meme which implied he was willing to “go to war” with Apple, rather than pay the fee.
Neither Twitter or Apple were responding to requests for comment on the controversies with Musk.
In other news, responding to criticism from a former Twitter Trust and Safety Officer, Musk responded that Twitter had been failing at Trust and Safety for years, and then acknowledged Twitter had been interfering in elections for all that time. He added, “Twitter 2.0 will be far more effective, transparent and even-handed.”
Musk also supplied an update on his Neuralink project to implant computer interfaces in human brains, noting, “We are now confident that the Neuralink device is ready for humans, so timing is a function of working through the FDA approval process.”