Apple is threatening to remove Twitter from its app store, according to Elon Musk. He revealed that point of contention on Monday, noting that the company behind the iPhone has not given any reason for its sudden hostility.
Twitter has recently been bombarded by companies pausing their advertisements, again for reasons that don’t seem readily apparent other than to virtue signal to the left.
These attacks are similar to those sustained by social media company Parler in early 2021, where Amazon and other hosting services sought to shut the site down on the backend after it was allegedly used by some who participated in the unrest on January 6th. Later evidence showed that Facebook was far more utilized in that instance, yet the social media giant never faced any backlash.
You can see where I’m going with this. These “concerns” that have led hosting companies, whether providing servers or app stores, to try to shut down social media sites are completely made up. There is no actual standard being applied. If there were, Twitter would have been shut down long ago due to it being a bastion for child pornography. Ironically, as Musk has cleaned up that kind of garbage, the attacks on his site have only intensified. You can do the math on that, but it’s not a good look for Apple or any of the advertisers choosing to boycott Twitter.
When you take a step back, what this boils down to is a fear by companies, most headed by far-left radicals, that conservative speech might be allowed to propagate freely. Apple doesn’t actually believe that Twitter is somehow uniquely dangerous under Musk compared to the old regime. On the contrary, the shutting down of accounts that share child porn and promote violence has created a safer environment on Twitter. At the very least, things are a wash, meaning there should be no sudden disapproval.
What it looks like, though, is that Apple is using the threat of essentially taking Twitter out in order to gain concessions on moderation on the site. Musk should laugh in their face, and I suspect he will. I also suspect that Apple is bluffing. It’s easy to virtue signal when there are no stakes, but if Twitter is removed from the app store for what are obviously biased reasons, there will be lawsuits. Does Apple really want to deal with that just to make a few MSNBC talking heads happy? I have my doubts.
At the end of the day, nothing is as simple as just saying that “private companies can do what they want.” Apple will face legal wrath if they move forward with this threat. They may also face some competition if Musk then seeks to make his own phone and app store. Again, is this really a fight Apple wants to take on when there’s no actual payoff?
Still, it’s important to understand that this is the new battlefield. Conservatives better have backup plans in place, because these woke corporations are not going to go quietly. That will mean a need for more and more alternative methods of commerce, from social media to banking. I hate that it’s come to that, but that’s the reality of the situation.