Elon Musk claims Apple threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store

Elon Musk targeted Apple in a stream of tweets, accusing the company of threatening to remove Twitter from its iOS App Store with no explanation, initiating a battle with the tech giant over its policies, CNN reports.

Musk appears ready to pick a fight, taking aim at the company's app store policies while calling out Apple CEO Tim Cook. In one tweet, he asked, "Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?" He also added that despite being the social platform's top source of ad revenue, "Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter."

While Musk has continually defended his vision for Twitter as a safe haven for free speech, some say he might be triggering a battle that could undermine the platform's success by challenging one of the gatekeepers for mobile apps.

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Historian Kevin Kruse warned that Musk might be taking on more than he can handle by confronting the tech giant. "They're a whole lot bigger than he is and not likely to scare easily," he wrote. Similarly, Wedbush Senior Equity Analyst Dan Ives said Musk has challenged "the one company in the world you NEVER want to pick a fight with."

Tim Sweeney, the video game company Epic's CEO, supported Musk's assertion that Apple is quick to censor companies that defy its policies. Epic, the creators of Fortnite, sued Apple in 2019 for "anticompetitive behavior with its App Store," per The New York Times.

"Apple blocked Fortnite within a few hours of Epic defying their policy," Sweeney tweeted. "Would they nuke Twitter? Spotify? Facebook? Netflix? At what point does the whole rotten structure collapse?"