Musk Meets With Apple's Tim Cook After Sparking Feud On Twitter
We'd think Elon Musk had enough drama going on at Twitter. Half his advertisers bailed, despite his asking very nicely for them to stay. Donald Trump won't come back. He may have to make a whole new phone! It's been an adventure and a half. We at SlashGear thought Elon might scale it back a bit, focus on infrastructure, and generally get his business together.
Or he might have a painfully public Twitter spat with Apple. That's also an alternative, we suppose.
As with so many Twitter arguments, Musk's Apple angst seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding. In a rarity for Twitter arguments, however, the participants seem to have engaged in good faith and achieved a result that's peaceful and profitable for everyone involved. We'd like to think all the other problems Musk is juggling over at Twitter HQ will come to equally equitable conclusions, but we're not holding our breath.
Peace for the present
The drama began when Apple, like many Twitter advertisers, scaled back its investment in the platform due to the documented spike of hate speech and general toxicity following Elon Musk's acquisition of the platform (via Gizmodo). This choice raised concerns that Apple might be disengaging from Twitter as a whole. As that would constitute a massive hit to Twitter's business, Musk understandably went nuclear.
Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Instead of a pointless flame war, Apple CEO Tim Cook decided to step up and address the actual problem. Per further tweets from Musk, he met with Cook on Apple's campus in Cupertino and secured a commitment that, as matters stand, the iOS store will continue to carry the Twitter app.
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.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022
Of course, a verbal commitment isn't a binding contract. What parameters, if any, Cook set around Apple's commitment have yet to come to light. That said, given that Apple "never considered" removing the Twitter app from its store, things seem rosy for iOS users committed to Twitter. At present, that's one problem Elon Musk no longer has.