Musk prepares to "go to war' against Apple, 'risking' expulsion from App Store

San Franisco: Elon Musk accused Apple of threatening to oust Twitter from App Store according to AFP news agency.

The Twitter owner questioned the 30 percent fee that Apple reportedly collects on transactions via its App Store.

Opening fire against Apple's control over its App Store, which is the sole gateway for applications to enter mobile devices, Musk made a series of tweets including a meme of a car labelled "Go to War", implying opening a warfront.

One of the tweets read that Apple has "threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won't tell us why".

However, Yoel Roth, who is the former head of trust and safety at Twitter, said in his op-ed in New York Times that failure to comply with guidelines of Apple and Google would risk expulsion from their app stores.

Meanwhile Musk reinstated many previously banned accounts including that of former US president Donald Trump.

Musk called himself a "free speech absolutist" and described his actions as a "revolution against online censorship in America", according to the report.

It seems Musk is facing loss of revenue from Apple considering his accusation that the iPhone maker "mostly stopped advertising on Twitter".

Tagging Apple head Tim Cook, Musk tweeted "Do they hate free speech in America?"

Despite Musk's claim of ' record high engagement with him at the helm", a nonprofit observer Media Matters found half of Twitter's top 100 advertisers either announced suspension of advertising or stopped advertising on Twitter.

According to a Washington Post, Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the early months of 2022, contributing more than 4 percent of Twitter's revenue.

Sarah Roberts, who is an information studies expert at University of California, called Twitter a tainted brand and added that companies did not want to associate with it.