Elon Musk goes to war with Apple

The new head of Twitter has had some strong words for Apple’s App Store among other grievances.

Let me start by putting my cards on the table because I think writers should be as clear about their biases as possible. I’m a longtime fan of Apple and a longtime fan of Elon Musk, and I’ve been enthusiastic about his purchase of Twitter. These two things came into pretty sharp conflict this week as Elon Musk has lobbed a volley of tweets at Apple.

On Monday Musk tweeted, “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America? What’s going on here @tim_cook?” Twitter makes a significant amount of its revenue from selling advertising, and John Gruber reported yesterday that Apple was actually the largest advertiser on Twitter prior to Musk taking over the company. If it’s true that Apple has paused or seriously curtailed advertising on Twitter, it’s not hard to see why Musk would be peeved about that and want Apple back.

In reply to an Elon Musk tweet about Apple censorship, someone shared the Epic Games parody of Apple’s 1984 commercial. Musk quote-tweeted that and added, “Accurate.” As a reminder, Epic Games intentionally, and flagrantly violated Apple’s App Store terms and conditions, specifically by offering in-app purchases within Fortnite for in-game currency using a competing payment platform. Apple swiftly responded by removing Fortnite from the App Store. Epic Games then immediately launched a website attacking Apple as a monopoly and filed an antitrust suit against Apple. You might agree with Epic Games that there should be alternative app stores and competing payment options on iOS. That’s perfectly fine. But what Epic Games did was a dishonest, unethical, premeditated stunt to goad Apple into giving them grounds to sue Apple. A suit which Epic eventually mostly lost. Epic Games portrayed itself as a champion of the little guy. David against Apple’s Goliath. The reality is that they’re a multibillion dollar company that wants to run a competing app store on iOS so they can charge their own commission fee for digital goods purchases. If you want to say that Apple is bad, fine. But Epic Games is not a good actor.

Musk later tweeted, “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.” In response to another Musk tweet, Jake Kastrenakes of The Verge asked, “is Apple threatening Twitter's presence in the App Store or otherwise making moderation demands?” Musk responded simply, “Yes.” One of my personal rules is to never ask a person two questions at once via text because you’re always certain to get an answer only to one of them. If you parse Kastrenakes’s tweet, there are two questions: 1) Is Apple threatening Twitter’s presence in the App Store and 2) Is Apple making moderation demands. Musk’s response could be interpreted as a yes to both, or as a yes to only one of the questions, but individuals, politicians, and media outlets have run with this story as if it’s definitely a yes to both.

My thinking all along has been that Apple won’t kick Twitter out of the App Store. There are no reasonable grounds for them to do so, and it would only fuel Congressional interest in bringing antitrust action against Apple, particularly as a Republican majority which has been largely favorable of Musk buying Twitter takes over in January. If Apple has threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store or has made moderation demands, I think Musk should publish exactly what Apple has said to Twitter. I’m not accusing him of lying, but he’s provided no evidence to back up his claim, and frankly I’ve been surprised at how many people are just taking his word for it. Let’s assume for a moment that Apple has said something along these lines to Twitter. Was it Apple, the company, or one of Apple’s app review employees who raised an objection to Twitter? I’d bet if it’s anything it’s the latter. We may never know, but Musk could settle this by release any documentation he has from Apple. That way we could see if there’s any truth to this, and if so if Musk’s characterization of Apple’s communication with Twitter is accurate.

Later on Monday, a replier to Musk tweeted, “Apple takes a 30% tax from app developers who make over $1 million through the ‌App Store‌ on an annual basis. Apple's App Store is the equivalent to a 30% tax on the Internet.” That second sentence is exactly how Elon Musk has portrayed the App Store commission fee in the past. Musk quoted tweeted that reply adding, “Did you know Apple puts a secret 30% tax on everything you buy through their App Store?” Musk’s comments are misleading on a few levels. First, developers making up to a million dollars per year in App Store revenue are only subject to a 15% commission fee via Apple’s App Store Small Business Program. Secondly, there’s nothing secret about Apple’s App Store business model. Just because you don’t know something doesn’t mean it’s a secret. Apple publishes all of the terms and conditions for participating in the App Store as a developer right on its website, including details about the commission fees. Thirdly, it’s not a tax. Some have accused me of being pedantic here, but this is an important distinction. A tax is a fee levied by the state, and enforced by their monopoly on the police, court, and prison systems. If you’re a developer who depends on revenue from the App Store, losing access to that revenue would be very bad. But it wouldn’t be as bad as what the State would due to someone engaged in tax evasion.

Elon Musk may have legitimate philosophical concerns with the way the App Store business model works. That’s very possible. But all of his complaints yesterday are very self-serving. Obviously he’d prefer to pay a smaller commission fee for each in-app purchase of a Twitter Blue subscription. I’d prefer to pay $3 for Twitter Blue than $8. He’s also more than welcome to wage a campaign against Apple’s business practices in the court of public opinion. That’s fair game. Where he’s wrong is in being dishonest in the way he conducts that campaign. Furthermore, in the past he has called for the federal government to take antitrust action against Apple. This is problematic on two levels. Firstly, I find it unethical for the richest man in the world to attempt to leverage the State to force another company to give him a more favorable business arrangement. Secondly, this is extremely risky on Musk’s part. That same sword could be wielded against him in the future.