Elon Musk takes jabs at Apple, Twitter’s biggest ad buyer

2022-11-29

Elon Musk accused Apple of censorship in yet another series of incoherent tweets, claiming the Cupertino company stopped advertising on Twitter. The new CEO also said the tech company threatened to pull the social media from the App Store, without providing any proof, and then followed up with retweets of claims and quotes about free speech and how humanity is in a battle for the future of civilization.

According to numbers, obtained from ad management firm Pathmatics, Apple spent $131,600 on Twitter ads between November 10 and November 16, almost half of what it spent between October 16 and October 22 - the week before Elon Musk acquired the social media for $44 billion.

In the first quarter of the year Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter, spending about $48 million on the platform, which is around 4% of the total revenue. Ad sales account for about 90% of Twitter’s income.

Elon Musk tweeted that Apple required developers to pay 30% on every in-app purchase through the App Store, and he even retweeted a parody video, originally made by Epic Games regarding Fortnite’s issues with the App Store, claiming 2020 is going to become 1984.

Via