Elon Musk's Feud With Apple Criticized By Tesla Bulls, Others: 'Frontloading A Fight With Cook…Won't Work'

Twitter owner Elon Musk launched an attack against Apple Inc. AAPL on Monday for pausing most of the ads on the social media platform.

What Happened: Musk even questioned Apple's commitment to free speech. But it appears that his outbursts have not gone down well even with his staunchest supporters.

Tesla bulls Gary Black of Future Fund and Ross Gerber of Gerber Kawasaki Wealth And Investment Management did not take kindly to Musk’s comments.

Gerber reminded Musk about his “tiff” with Apple in the past. The Tesla CEO had previously criticized the 30% app store fee Apple levies, calling it a “tax on internet.” Musk himself confessed in 2020 that he had sought an appointment with Apple CEO Tim Cook in 2018 when Tesla was on the brink to discuss a potential sale to the tech giant, but Cook promptly turned down the request.

Gerber also took a dig at Apple for pulling back ads amid a challenging environment. 

Seems like a bad time for apple and @tim_cook to be making any moralistic stand. Considering the horrific conditions in their factory has started riots across china... This is a lose/lose position from Apple... $AAPL #twitter

— Ross Gerber (@GerberKawasaki) November 28, 2022

See Also: Advertisers Are Secretly Fearing Twitter With Musk At The Helm - And He Needs Them

Black, meanwhile, said the decision by Apple may have to do with free speech, as Musk said. Uncertainty may have served as pushback, Black added.

“I would bet they (will) come back if you can assure on brand safety and product adjacency concerns,” the fund manager said.

Later when Musk shared on Twitter a pic of his bedside table with empty cans of diet coke and two guns, Black wasn't impressed.

I’d be surprised if $TWTR has any advertisers left after today’s shit show (tweets showing guns on the end table, not disavowing Pepe the frog, declaring war on AAPL). This is not about freedom of speech. It’s about brand safety. $TSLA

— Gary Black (@garyblack00) November 29, 2022

Twitter Has Functional Issues: A military history author going by the Twitter handle @ChrisO_wiki said it is functional and not political issues that are keeping advertisers at bay.

Citing an advertising director, he said user metrics have come way down and brand safety is an issue, as ads appear next to pornography and anti-Semitic posts. Nobody at Twitter was responding to complaints from advertisers, he added. He also noted discrepancies between campaign data from the Twitter Ads API and User Interface.

Advertisers, therefore, are also not able to get accurate data about campaign performance, he added.

Apple Cares A Hoot? Mashable reporter Matt Binder said Apple isn’t likely to be rattled by Musk, given the tech giant let go of Fortnite game developer Epic Games, which was making over $1 billion in revenue on its App Store.

Apple gave Fortnite the boot for not agreeing with the App Store revenue share and the game was making $1 billion+ on iOS

something tells me Apple won’t be rattled by Musk and his army of 150k users paying $8 pic.twitter.com/vaMorPHaoU

— Matt Binder (@MattBinder) November 28, 2022

University of Washington Professor Carl Bergstrom sees Musk’s whining as a preemptive move. “My guess is that Musk is trying to manufacture a feud with Apple so he can claim retaliation when the Twitter app is removed from the app store for violating Apple's TOS,” he said.

Journalist Kara Swisher had a more scathing take. The podcast host said, “frontloading a fight” with Cook with “specious nonsense” won’t work. Giving two reasons, she said Cook isn’t a “manic toddler hopped up on Twinkies and weaponry cosplay,” and no advertiser would like to spend his marketing money in “Thunderdome of toxic asininity.”

Photo: Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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