On Twitter, Elon Musk announced that Apple threatened to remove the Twitter application from its App Store. He didn’t give any reasoning for why they would do this.
On Twitter, Musk said that “Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter.” He followed up by asking if America’s principles of free expression are suffering.
Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
He continued, tweeting that not only did “Apple” threaten to remove “Twitter” from the “App Store,” but they didn’t even tell us why.
Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
He posed a question to users: “Did you know that Apple charges a 30% tax on every purchase made in the App Store?”
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 28, 2022
Advertising agencies have suspended their ads on Twitter due to Musk’s unpredictable attitudes towards his management of the company, according to the Financial Times.
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On Monday, Musk tweeted that Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter for the most part.
Apple and Twitter have not yet responded to a request for comment from Reuters.
Musk earlier blamed the losses on November on civil rights groups that had been pressuring Twitter’s top advertisers to take action if he didn’t protect the existing content moderation mechanism. The groups said they would step up pressure and demand brands pull their ads from Twitter globally.
And many companies, including the American luxury car maker Audi, have temporarily stopped advertising on Twitter since Musk’s purchase of the platform was completed.
From October 1st to the 16th, Apple’s estimated Twitter ad spending was $220,800. However, between November 10th and 16th, that number decreased significantly to only $131,600 according to Pathmatics.
According to a study by Media Matters, within one month of taking over as CEO of Twitter, Elon Musk lost half of the platform’s top 100 advertisers.
According to Media Matters in America, 50 of the top 100 advertisers have spent nearly $2 billion on Twitter since 2020, with $750 million being expended on Ads in 2022 alone.
However, as of November 21st, 7 more advertisers have joined a growing trend; these companies now spend little to no money on advertising via Twitter. This was revealed by India Times and then Al Arabiya.
According to a recent study, the annual advertising value on Twitter is an estimated $5 billion. In 2020, these seven advertisers spent more than $255 million on Twitter, with projections of nearly $118 million in 2022.
A number of large companies, such as Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Ford, and Chevrolet, have recently pulled advertising spending from social platforms. These same companies have now issued statements confirming their extended pause on Twitter advertisements, according to the study.
Even with these monetary set-backs, Elon Musk continued to engage in behavior that was harmful to the brand, such as spreading conspiracies, re-admitting accounts that had been banned (like former President Donald Trump’s), and encouraging far-right activity. Worse yet, he instituted a subscription service where fraudsters could pay for a blue check mark next to their name.
