Peace in our times! Musk meets with Cook and war is averted

Worried that Apple was going to remove Twitter from the App Store, Twitter's new owner Elon Musk had a meeting Wednesday with Apple CEO Tim Cook according to The Guardian. Musk took to his Twitter account to report the results of his talk with Cook and he wrote, "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."

An earlier tweet posted by Musk contained a picture of a pond that he said was on Apple's campus. Elon also thanked Cook for "taking me around Apple's beautiful HQ."  So the evidence would suggest that the two executives had a face-to-face talk rather than hashing this out over email, phone, or text.

Just the other day, Elon had whipped himself into such a frenzy over the possibility that Apple and Google would remove Twitter from the App Store and Play Store that he threatened to develop an "alternative" phone if this were to happen. He also left a series of unhinged tweets including one meme-since deleted-that suggested that he was going to war against Apple. Other tweets also complained about the 15% to 30% cut of in-app payments that Apple collects on App Store purchases.

Thanks @tim_cook for taking me around Apple’s beautiful HQ pic.twitter.com/xjo4g306gR

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2022

 

While Tim Cook was able to placate Musk-at least for the time being-the truth is that Apple's App Store rules prevent apps from posting content that results in behavior that "we believe is over the line." This could lead to trouble for Twitter down the road as far as Apple is concerned since Musk has been described as a "free speech absolutist" who believes that the Constitution prevents the government from banning any form of speech.

As a result, the Tesla CEO has reinstated several Twitter accounts belonging to users who had been banned from the platform including former President Donald Trump. However, Trump has refused the invitation as he continues to try to find traction for his own Truth Social social media site. And Twitter also will no longer ban content that contains misinformation about COVID.

But the European Union's European Commission (EC) warned Twitter that it must "significantly increase" its efforts to comply with the continent's Digital Services ACT (DSA) which includes legislation preventing the dissemination of content that includes hate speech and disinformation. If Twitter doesn't tighten up enforcement over its content, it faces receiving a hefty fine and a ban in Europe. 

Thierry Breton, the EU's commissioner for the internal market, said that a video call with Musk was "constructive" and that Musk had "committed to comply" with the DSA.

Musk, whose net worth is estimated at $190 billion, closed on his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last month. He recently posted that his social media platform was attracting 250 million daily users up from 238 million during the summer before the acquisition closed. Musk first made his unsolicited offer to buy Twitter on April 14th before trying to back out of the deal. Elon was concerned about the high number of Twitter accounts that he said were run by bots.

After Twitter sued Musk to complete the transaction, the multi-billionaire filed a counterclaim. Just before the first court appearance was scheduled, both sides got together and Musk decided to follow through with the acquisition. Thus far, the purchase has been a headache for Musk who laid off staff that he needed and tried to hire some back. And we can't forget the issues that Elon created himself by allowing anyone to purchase the once highly sought-after Twitter verification checkmark for $8 per month.

After changing his mind several times, it appears that there will be three tiers of checkmarks. He posted that there will be a "Gold check for companies, grey check for government, blue for individuals (celebrity or not)." And besides paying for the mark, he added that "All verified accounts will be manually authenticated before check activates."