"Tim Was Clear...": Elon Musk Says Clash With Apple A "Misunderstanding"

Elon Musk had accused Apple of threatening to block Twitter from its app store without saying why in a series of tweets that also said it had stopped advertising on the social media platform.

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Elon Musk tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from Apple.
San Francisco:

Elon Musk on Wednesday tweeted that the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from Apple Inc's App Store was resolved following his meeting with the iPhone maker's Chief Executive Tim Cook.

"Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so," the billionaire CEO of Twitter and Tesla Inc said in a tweet.

Musk also tweeted a video clip of "Apple's beautiful HQ" in Cupertino, California, noting that he had had a "good conversation" with Cook.

Apple did not reply to AFP requests for comment.

The world's richest person opened fire on the planet's most valuable company early this week over fees and rules at the App Store, saying Apple had threatened to oust his recently acquired social media platform.

The billionaire CEO had tweeted that Apple "threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store, but won't tell us why."

Apple, which has not issued a public statement on the matter, typically tells developers if fixes need to be implemented in apps to conform to App Store policies.

Analysts told AFP the clash may have came down to money, with Musk irked that the App Store takes a commission on transactions such as subscriptions.

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Musk has delayed the relaunch of the Twitter Blue subscription tier intended to have users pay for perks such as account verification check marks.

Twitter rolled out Blue early in November, but pulled the plug after impersonators paid for check marks to appear legitimate in what former head of safety and security Yoel Roth referred to as "a disaster."

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Both Apple and Google also require social networking services on their app stores to have effective systems for moderating harmful or abusive content.

But since taking over Twitter last month, Musk has cut around half of Twitter's workforce, including many employees tasked with fighting disinformation, while an unknown number of others have quit.

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He has also reinstated previously banned accounts, including that of former president Donald Trump.

Describing himself as a "free speech absolutist," Musk believes that all content permitted by law should be allowed on Twitter, and has described his actions as a "revolution against online censorship in America."

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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