Elon Musk writes on Twitter about Apple's 30 percent cut, prompting scrutiny of Apple

Elon Musk has called out Apple for its "monopolistic" practices and he is not the first one to call out Apple. Elon Musk possesses one of the most influential accounts on Twitter and he uses it as a bully pulpit. On November 28, Musk used his Twitter account to inform the world that Apple has stopped advertising on Twitter. He went on to ask why Apple has decided to do so by writing, "Do they hate free speech in America?" 

In recent days, Apple has come under criticism for refusing to speak out about protests by workers in iPhone factories in China. Workers in these iPhone factories have poor working conditions and there have been many instances of workers committing suicide due to the sheer pressure of work. Musk also disclosed that Apple charges a 30 per cent tax on app developers who have an app on Apple's app store. In other words, Apple has a rent-seeking business model. 

Musk is not the sole critic of Apple

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta (Facebook) has slammed Apple for undercutting other tech companies with its advertisement policy. Apple's Identifiers for Advertisers (IDFA) policy targets Meta's business model, which is driven by advertisement revenues. Apple claims it did so to protect the privacy of its users but Apple does not really have a track record of protecting privacy, especially in China. Just as the widespread protests broke out in China, Apple restricted its Airdrops feature in the country. Airdrops can be used to communicate and organise protests. Dissidents in China were reportedly using the Airdrops feature to communicate amongst themselves without the surveillance of the Chinese Communist Party. 

Apple's behaviour in China and its monopolistic tendencies have drawn attention not just from Musk but from people in America's governing class. Florida's governor Ron DeSantis, who might become GOP's presidential candidate for the 2024 elections, slammed Apple for its behaviour. He said that if Twitter is not allowed on the App store, Congress should investigate whether Apple is a monopoly. He also said that Apple is "serving basically as a vassal to the Chinese Communist Party". Apple has been criticised by comparatively less-known app developers for quite some time. The Epic games versus Apple lawsuit was the culmination of relatively small app developers challenging Apple. After Meta, Musk is the first prominent voice to question Apple's policies. "It’s a real problem. Apple and Google effectively control access to most of the Internet via their app stores," he said.