Elon Musk, owner and chief executive officer of Twitter, has accused Apple of threatening to remove the microblogging app from its Store.
Musk said this in a tweet on Monday evening.
His allegation comes amid social media discussions on the possibility of Apple and Google kicking off Twitter from their app stores over content moderation issues.
“Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why,” the tweet reads.
Musk also replied “yes” to a user question on whether Apple was threatening Twitter’s presence in the App Store or making moderation demands.
In another tweet, the billionaire said that Apple had cut back on its advertising on the platform.
“Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” he tweeted.
He then tagged Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive officer, asking, “What’s going on here?”
Musk went on to publish a poll asking if Apple should “publish all censorship actions” taken that impact customers and he began retweeting content from companies that Apple has had discussions with on moderation.
Recently, Musk said that he would build his smartphone if Apple and/or Google pulled Twitter from their respective app stores.
A Twitter user tweeted on Friday that “if Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his smartphone.
“Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right.”
Musk had responded, “I certainly hope it does not come to that, but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone”.
