Elon Musk’s Feud With Apple Fizzles Out: ‘We Resolved the Misunderstanding’

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk looked ready to go to war(Opens in a new window) against Apple after claiming the company was preparing to boot the social media app from the iOS App Store. But now he’s dialing down the tensions after Apple apparently invited Musk to visit the company’s headquarters in Silicon Valley. 

On Wednesday, Musk tweeted out(Opens in a new window) a video of him visiting Apple’s campus in Cupertino, California. In the same tweet, he noted Apple’s CEO Tim Cook personally showed him around the company’s headquarters. 

Musk then signaled he’s done picking a fight with Apple, at least for now. “Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so,” he wrote(Opens in a new window) in a follow-up tweet. 

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Musk’s feud with Apple revolves around his ongoing effort to rollback the content moderation over Twitter to prioritize free speech. Media reports have been pointing out Musk’s stance could collide with Apple and Google, which require social media apps to institute content moderation, or risk being pulled from the iOS and Google Play app stores. 

Last week, Musk tweeted(Opens in a new window) he’d create his own smartphone if Apple or Google ends up booting Twitter from their app stores. Days later, Musk alleged in another tweet(Opens in a new window): “Apple has also threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won’t tell us why.”

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He then escalated his feud further with a controversial post(Opens in a new window) that claimed: “Apple has mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?” In addition, Musk criticized(Opens in a new window) Apple’s long-standing, but notorious policy of taking a 30% cut from all digital sales over the iOS app store. The same policy means Twitter must hand over 30% of the sales made from selling Twitter Blue subscriptions over iOS. 

Musk posted the incendiary tweets while Apple publicly said nothing. But it seems Cupertino finally responded by quietly inviting Musk to company headquarters. That all said, it remains unclear if Musk managed to settle matters concerning Apple’s advertising spend on Twitter or its policy of taking a 30% cut from iOS app sales. So it’s possible Musk’s feud with Apple could end up simmering again. 

Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.