Elon Musk has just announced that Apple allegedly “threatened” to remove Twitter from its app store.
Twitter app logo. image credit: antonio1zamudio via Deviant Art, CC BY-ND 3.0
This situation is not confirmed by Apple yet. Twitter’s CEO tweeted about this latest issue yesterday. According to him, Apple attempted to put pressure related to its demands on content moderation rules.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?”, Musk said in one of his tweets.
At this point, it should be noted that the situation is still far from being clear, as we do not have the full picture. Apple may be following its standard procedures and policies which include all apps, and Twitter is not an exception in this regard. But it would be fair to note, that similar disputes have emerged in the past, notably with Gab and Parler, both social media apps.
According to industry benchmarks, Apple’s ad spending on Twitter ads went down from $220,800 to $131,600 the week before Elon Musk finalized the $44 billion-worth acquisition deal.
According to the data from the Washington Post, this revenue was substantially higher in the first quarter of 2022, when Apple spent $48 million for the purpose of advertising on this social media platform over this period. The change in spending is obvious – if the source data is correct.