In the last hours Elon Muskthrough his Twitter posts, has openly declared war against Apple. Tesla’s CEO complains about a threat to remove his platform from the App Store and claims that Apple would have blocked his advertisements on the blue social network.
For a summary of what is happening we recommend our dedicated article.
Here instead we will try to understand, data in hand, if Elon Musk’s claims are real. Little spoiler: I’m not. At least not all.
Twitter vs Apple: How much truth is there in Elon Musk’s claims?
According to internal documents released by the Washington Post, Apple was Twitter’s largest advertiser during the first quarter of 2022. An amount equal to $48 million in the first quartera figure that represents 4% of Twitter’s total revenue in that specific quarter).
Elon Musk says Apple is stopping its ads on the platform. To be honest, as we have already specified in the other article, Apple was not the only big tech to distance itself from the blue social network after the controversial maneuvers of its new buyer. Anyway new data of Pathmatics (via Reuters) tell us that Apple continued to buy Twitter ads, both before and after Elon Musk’s purchase.
According to the report Cupertino would have spent approx $131,600 in ads on the platform between November 10-16, 2022 alone, that is, when Musk was already the new CEO. It is however a down from $220,800 from October 16/22, the week before Musk formalized the acquisition.
Although we do not have the data relating to Apple’s spending on Twitter this week, the portal 9to5mac has collected the opinion of its community, going so far as to state that many users still see sponsored ads from Apple on Twitter. This would confirm that there hasn’t been any interruption in the advertisements.
Elon Musk: ‘Apple doesn’t approve of new Twitter updates’
Another accusation by Elon Musk concerns the App Store disapproval about the new updates introduced by Twitter. This accusation has also been denied by the 9to5mac portal, which reported all the updates announced by Twitter and duly approved by the App Store. Below is a short list regarding the latest update announced on November 5th:
- New Twitter Blue Features ($7.99/month)
- Paid blue ticks
- Improved ranking for advertisers
- Longer videos
While these innovations weren’t actually released due to Twitter Blue’s delay, 9to5mac reports that they have been approved by App Store reviewers. On the other hand, Elon Musk continues to accuse Apple of wanting to censor his app.
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022