Why Is Elon Musk Choosing A Battle With Apple? Can He Win?

Elon Musk is likely one of the largest-looming figures in tech, however he could within the midst of choosing a battle he’s not fairly ready for.

In a collection of tweets throughout Monday and Tuesday, Elon Musk went after Apple, an organization which he views as actively threatening not simply Twitter particularly, however the bigger tech business as an entire due to its far-reaching powers.

There are three fundamental causes that Elon Musk is worried about Apple and feels the necessity to publicly spar with them:

The Drawback: Elon says that Apple has ceased practically all advert spending on Twitter. The difficulty right here is that Apple is not only one other advertiser, however one which has had as a lot as $100 million in advert spend on the platform previously, and has been one in all Twitter’s largest advertisers. This comes within the wake of a report from Platformer that Twitter advert revenues are down 49% in only a week, basically in freefall.

The Battle: Elon has tried to assert that Apple, and different fleeing advertisers “hate free speech,” which can rile up his fanbase, however in sensible functions, “naming and shaming” your advertisers for leaving shouldn’t be actually going to do something than cement their choice to depart and trigger others to do the identical. And whereas Elon wields a big assortment of devotees, they’re under no circumstances massive sufficient the place some kind of Apple boycott may make a dent within the firm. Twitter wants Apple far, way over Apple wants Twitter, and Elon’s conduct will solely make issues worse between the 2 corporations.

The Drawback: Elon says that Apple is now threatening to take away Twitter from the App Retailer, however is not going to inform them why. Previous social media platforms like Parler have beforehand been banned for what Apple deemed was an absence of adequate moderation, and Twitter has simply seen its moderation groups gutted by a collection of layoffs and resignations, and that appears to be the probably purpose for Apple’s hesitancy to let Twitter keep within the retailer.

The Battle: As a result of Apple retains complete management over its App Retailer, there may be basically nothing Elon can do with a purpose to power Apple to maintain itemizing Twitter. He can get offended on Twitter about it, but when Apple points precise calls for about content material moderation and hate speech and no matter else they could have issues about, Elon shall be compelled to select between his dramatic devotion to free speech, or retaining Twitter on the App Retailer. There may be unlikely to be a lot middleground, and once more, Apple, not Twitter or Elon, has all the facility on this state of affairs.

The Drawback: Elon has gone after Apple’s 30% reduce from all transactions inside apps in its App Retailer, as that will trigger main issues for his grand plan to interchange Twitter’s (rapidly dwindling) promoting with Twitter Blue subscriptions. Blue has its personal points, like mass impersonation now that verification is being offered for $8 a month, however even in an ideal world with thousands and thousands of sign-ups, Elon doesn’t need to be paying Apple 30% of his subscription income by sign-ups in iOS.

The Battle: Not like the earlier two factors, that is one space the place Elon could have some wider assist throughout the general public and tech business and even the federal government. Apple’s necessary 30% reduce (for apps above $1 million in income) has been scrutinized by everybody from Congress to Meta, and the best profile battle has been a lawsuit with Epic Video games, who noticed Fortnite banned from the App Retailer after instituting a approach gamers may pay them for in-game gadgets and get round Apple’s 30% tax. However whereas Elon could have broader assist right here, a authorized battle could be prolonged and expensive, and to this point, the earlier case with Epic principally didn’t go of their favor. If Elon can function a grand unifier throughout all of tech to get folks and firms to rally in opposition to Apple’s reduce, he may make some headway there, however Elon being a bridge-builder shouldn’t be precisely his persona as of late. And naturally, by all of this, he nonetheless has to even get folks to enroll in Twitter Blue in significant numbers within the first place.

In two of those three circumstances, Apple wields all the facility and Elon successfully can not to a lot of something besides get very mad at them on Twitter, which can most likely solely make them spend even much less in promoting, and extra more likely to take away the app from their retailer. The 30% reduce is a broader challenge, however Elon’s Twitter doesn’t even have the subscriber base proper now to make that its major concern, nor does Elon appear to be he’s going to spend the following few years discovering allies and constructing a lawsuit in opposition to Apple to vary this, even when Apple could certainly must be introduced in line on this realm.

Briefly, it’s not a lot excellent news right here, and even the richest man on the earth could also be considerably powerless within the face of the totality of energy of one of many greatest firms on the earth.

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