As of this week, the platform no longer takes action against false information about the corona virus.
(Photo: Reuters)
san francisco On Friday, Elon Musk could apparently make a new attempt to introduce the eight-dollar subscription to the Twitter short message service. The service will initially only be available for Apple devices, news site The Information reported on Tuesday, citing a person familiar with the plans. The Android version will be updated later. Twitter had initially not commented on the reports.
Elon Musk also received support from US politicians in the recent dispute with the tech giant Apple. Influential Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said at a news conference: “If Apple responds to this by banning Twitter from the App Store, I think that would be a big, big mistake and it would be a really gross exercise of monopolistic power. Another Republican politician, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, wrote on Twitter: “This would be the crudest exercise of monopoly power in a century, and no civilized country should allow it.”
In a series of tweets on Monday, Musk accused Apple of threatening to ban the Twitter app from Apple devices. “Apple has threatened to ban Twitter from the App Store but won’t tell us why,” the billionaire wrote. In addition, the iPhone manufacturer has stopped advertising on the social media platform. Musk also accused Apple of charging excessive fees from app providers. Apple typically charges 15 percent to 30 percent of proceeds for purchases within apps on the iPhone operating system. These fees could also apply to Twitter’s subscription service. In a later-deleted tweet, Musk hinted at wanting to go “to war” against Apple.
Apple initially did not respond to the allegations. A new update to Apple’s Twitter app was released just a week ago.
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In the past, Apple has banned important apps over fee disputes. In 2020, in the popular game Fortnite, the company Epic Games added a system to its iPhone app that allowed users to bypass Apple’s 30 percent royalty. Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store that same day. The incident sparked a legal battle that Apple won on most counts but is currently appealing.
Twitter allows misinformation about coronavirus
As of this week, Twitter no longer takes action against false information about the corona virus. Measures aimed at stopping the spread of false and misleading information about the virus have been halted.
Back in September, prior to Musk’s acquisition, Twitter proudly announced that enforcement of its COVID-19 misinformation policy has resulted in 11.7 million accounts being challenged, more than 11,000 accounts suspended, and nearly 100,000 pieces of content removed since the year before last became. The procedure was criticized above all from the right-wing political camp in the USA. Musk himself downplayed the 2020 pandemic.
In addition, Twitter suffers from dwindling advertising revenue. Around 90 percent of advertising revenue recently contributed to Twitter sales. But a number of large corporations, including the car manufacturers Volkswagen and GM, had paused their advertising on Twitter. The usually well-informed technology portal Platformer reported on Tuesday, citing an internal company presentation, that weekly advertising bookings had fallen by 49 percent.
New security gaps are also feared at the tech company. Twitter hasn’t gotten any safer under new ownership Musk, according to the former head of Trust and Safety. The company no longer has enough staff for security work, Yoel Roth said in an interview with well-known tech journalist Kara Swisher on Tuesday.
After Musk took over the social media platform, Roth tweeted that security under the Tesla founder had improved in some respects. At a journalists’ conference, when asked if he still thought so, he said, “No.”
More: Google and YouTube step up fight against misinformation
With agency material.