Elon Musk said in a stream of tweets Monday that Apple has “mostly” stopped advertising on Twitter and claimed the tech giant threatened to “withhold” the social media platform from the app store.
‘Do they hate free speech in America?’ Musk tweeted.
The business magnate also tagged Apple CEO Tim Cook in the thread saying, ‘what’s going on here.’
Musk didn’t stop there, either.
Shortly after, Musk posted a Twitter poll asking if Apple should publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers. Within an hour of posting the poll, it received over 500,000 responses.
After that, Musk tweeted again, telling his followers that Apple has ‘threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store’ for an unknown reason.
Representatives for Apple and Twitter did not immediately respond to FOX Business’ request for comment.
It’s the latest headwind for Twitter since Musk took ownership of the social media company for a hefty $44 billion last month.
After taking the reins, Musk fired his top executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, and roughly half his workforce.
He also immediately announced plans to change Twitter’s blue check verification system.
Advertisers have grown concerned over how content will get moderated even though the billionaire – who describes himself as a ‘free speech absolutist’ – tried to assure advertisers the platform will not become ‘a free-for-all hellscape’.
Companies, including General Motors, United Airlines and General Mills, temporarily halted buying ads on the platform.
Oreo maker Mondelez also announced it was pulling company ads from Twitter over concerns about hate speech.
Earlier this month, Musk admitted Twitter has faced a ‘massive drop in revenue’ because of ‘activist groups pressuring advertisers.’
‘Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation, and we did everything we could to appease the activists,’ Musk previously tweeted. ‘Extremely messed up! They’re trying to destroy free speech in America.’
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Originally published as ‘Do they hate free speech?’: Elon Musk blasts Apple after tech giant ‘threatened to remove Twitter from App Store’
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