Twitter Settles ‘Dispute’ With Apple After Elon Musk, Tim Cook Meeting

Twitter CEO, Elon Musk, has revealed that the misunderstanding that ensued between Twitter and Apple over the possibility of the microblogging app being removed from the Apple app store has been resolved.

Musk said he had a meeting with Apple Inc. CEO, Tim Cook, and that the issues involved have now been settled.

In a series of tweets on Monday, Musk accused Apple of threatening to block Twitter from its app store, adding that the company had also halted all its advertisements on the platform. Some of the tweets read:

“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America? What’s going on here @timcook?

“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.”

However, Musk has now shared that the matter has been put to rest as Cook assured him that Apple has no plans to boot Twitter from the App Store.

He first shared a video to his Twitter, thanking Cook for taking him around Apple’s headquarters.

He followed that up with another tweet saying, “Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”

In the tweets earlier this week, Musk also cited how Apple charges software developers a 30% fee on all in-app purchases. This fee had been a bone of contention with other apps like gaming platform ‘Fortnite’. In 2020, the app was banned from the app store after it formed an alternate payment platform for its in app purchases thereby circumventing Apple’s 30% fee.

A legal battle between Apple and Fortnite maker, Epic games, ensued which eventually ended largely in Apple’s favour with one major caveat: Apple now has to allow developers inform their users of alternative ways to pay within their apps.

Prior to the recent developments, Apple has spent about $48 million for ads on Twitter this year. It was the top advertiser on the platform for the first quarter of 2022, accounting for more than 4% of the total revenue for that period.

Generally, ad sales account for approximately 90% of Twitter’s revenue and since Musk’s acquisition of the company, things have not looked too good for them in that regard.

Companies like General Mills Inc and automobile manufacturer, Audi have paused or stopped advertising with the platform since Musk’s acquisition.

Others companies that halted their ads on the platform after Musk’s takeover are, popular food chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and American automobile manufacturer, General Motors.