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

Elon Musk is among the largest-looming figures in tech, however he might 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 primary 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 isn’t just one other advertiser, however one which has had as a lot as $100 million in advert spend on the platform up to now, and has been considered one of 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 Combat: 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 will not be actually going to do something than cement their determination to depart and trigger others to do the identical. And whereas Elon wields a big assortment of devotees, they’re on no account giant sufficient the place some form 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 firms.

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

The Combat: As a result of Apple retains whole management over its App Retailer, there’s basically nothing Elon can do in an effort to drive Apple to maintain itemizing Twitter. He can get indignant on Twitter about it, but when Apple points precise calls for about content material moderation and hate speech and no matter else they might have issues about, Elon might be pressured to select between his dramatic devotion to free speech, or maintaining Twitter on the App Retailer. There’s unlikely to be a lot middleground, and once more, Apple, not Twitter or Elon, has all the ability on this state of affairs.

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

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

In two of those three instances, Apple wields all the ability and Elon successfully can’t to a lot of something besides get very mad at them on Twitter, which is able to in all probability solely make them spend even much less in promoting, and extra prone to take away the app from their retailer. The 30% lower is a broader difficulty, however Elon’s Twitter doesn’t even have the subscriber base proper now to make that its main concern, nor does Elon look like he’s going to spend the subsequent few years discovering allies and constructing a lawsuit towards Apple to vary this, even when Apple might certainly have to be introduced in line on this realm.

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

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