Apple’s CEO told Elon Musk the company “never considered” pulling his social media platform from its App Store, the Twitter owner said Wednesday, suggesting that his own remarks about a possible removal were a “misunderstanding.”
Musk tweeted that he had a “Good conversation” with Tim Cook during a meeting at Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, where Cook showed him around. Musk on Monday had publicly accused Apple of threatening to drop Twitter from its store.
But “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so,” Musk wrote after speaking with Cook.
Several Apple employees told The New York Times they saw the two men together.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
Earlier in the week, Musk had complained about Apple’s control over its App Store, saying that the company applies a “secret 30% tax” to purchases.
His tweets garnered the attention of Republicans, with some condemning the tech company and calling for antitrust regulation.
“No one should have this kind of market power,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, wrote on Twitter.
This is not the first time Apple has come under fire for its grip on the App Store.
In 2019, Spotify filed a complaint against the company with European regulators “to ensure fair competition.”
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek on Wednesday said that Apple “gives itself every advantage while at the same time stifling innovation and hurting consumers.”
In the U.S., Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) introduced legislation called the “Open App Markets Act” in 2021, accusing Apple and Google of having “gatekeeper control of the two dominant mobile operating systems and their app stores that allow them to exclusively dictate the terms of the app market, inhibiting competition and restricting consumer choice.”
Musk also took issue this week with Apple’s advertising on Twitter, saying the company has “mostly stopped” using ads on the platform. But data from Pathmatics, a digital ad analytics company, has disputed Musk’s claims, saying that Apple’s ad spending on Twitter grew from October to November this year, according to Gizmodo.
“Do they hate free speech in America?” Musk asked Monday, referring to Apple.
A Media Matters report last week said 50 of the top 100 advertisers on Twitter either have said they will stop or have already seemed to stop advertising on the platform. The list does not include Apple.
Cook has not publicly weighed in on any of Musk’s accusations.
