Apple threatened to "withhold" Twitter from iOS App Store: Elon Musk

The new Twitter chief Elon Musk says that Apple has threatened to "withhold" Twitter from the iOS App Store for unknown reasons. The news follows a tweet in which Musk said Apple has "mostly stopped advertising" on the platform and a poll asking whether Apple should "publicize all the censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers." Apple did not comment on Musk's claim.

The news follows much more subtle signs of growing tension between Apple and Musk-owned Twitter. Musk has criticized Apple's app store fee for in-app purchases, calling it a "hidden 30% tax" on the internet. And Apple's app store chief Phil Schiller removed his Twitter account following the Musk takeover, shortly after Donald Trump's account was reinstated.

In a November 15 interview with CBS News, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that "they say they're going to continue with moderation. I'm counting on them to keep doing that." Musk, however, vowed to loosen Twitter's moderation guidelines and floated the idea of ​​a mass removal of suspended accounts.

Twitter has long tested the limits of Apple's app store moderation, successfully prompting Discord, Tumblr, and other services to hide potentially offensive content (typically adult content) or ban it entirely. Twitter remains one of the only major platforms that still allow adult content on its app, and a recent editorial by former Twitter executive Yoel Roth revealed that he regularly clashes with Apple over content such as racial slurs and the hashtag #boobs.

If Musk's statement is accurate, "hold" could mean temporarily rejecting a Twitter app update or could imply a more serious threat to launch Twitter from the iOS app store, a potentially devastating result for Twitter.