According to a study, Apple was Twitter’s largest advertiser in the first quarter of this year, spending $48m (£40m) on ads on the social network, which represented 4% of the company’s income during that period.
Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has attacked Apple, alleging the company has threatened to ban his social network from its app store.
The world’s richest man, who took the firm private for $44 billion (£36.7 billion) last month, stated that the iPhone manufacturer has “largely stopped advertising” on his platform.
Musk tweeted: “Do they despise free speech in America?”
In a statement addressed to Apple’s chief executive Tim Cook, he also asked, “What’s going on?”
In the first quarter of this year, Apple was Twitter’s largest advertiser, spending $48 million (£40 million) on advertisements on the social network.
According to the Washington Post, citing an internal Twitter document, this accounted for 4% of the company’s revenue in that period.
According to ad monitoring firm Pathmatics, the world’s most valuable company spent an estimated $131,600 (£110,000) on Twitter ads between 10 and 16 November, a decrease from the $220,800 (£184,000) it spent between 16 and 22 October, the week before Musk signed the Twitter transaction.
If the business blocked Twitter from its app store, new users would be unable to download the Twitter app for their iPhones and iPads, and existing users would be unable to get updates.
Musk posted a joke implying he was eager to “go to war” with the tech giant rather than pay the 30% commission that Apple charges software developers for in-app purchases.
Apple did not reply immediately to demands for comment after Musk’s bold remarks.
The commission fee could hinder his efforts to expand Twitter’s subscription revenue, in part to compensate for the departure of advertisers due to content moderation concerns.
Musk stated earlier this month that his company has experienced a “massive” sales decline.
Since the acquisition, companies such as General Mills and Audi of America have discontinued or paused advertising on Twitter.
The layoffs of thousands of employees by Musk are anticipated to have a big impact on content filtering.
The billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla asserted that Apple was exerting pressure on Twitter regarding moderation requirements.
Apple has consistently enforced its regulations and previously banned applications such as Parler, so the reported action wouldn’t be out of the ordinary.
Apple reinstated Parler, a popular app among US conservatives, in 2021 after the app changed its content and moderation policies.
