Elon Musk avoids feud with Apple by meeting with Tim Cook

Mr. Musk, who said the company was trying to sabotage Twitter, met with Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook on Wednesday.

SAN FRANCISCO - In a series of tweets On Monday, Twitter owner Elon Musk accused Apple of sabotaging his social media company by cutting advertising and threatening to remove the Twitter app from the App Store.

By Wednesday, any potential feud appeared to have been averted.

On Twitter, Mr. Musk posted a video of himself to be shown on the Apple campus in Cupertino, Calif., on Wednesday, walking past a meditation pool. Although the video does not show who Mr. Musk was walking with, Apple employees said they saw Mr. Musk with Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive. Mr. Musk said in a later post that he and Mr. Cook had discussed their dispute.

"We have resolved the misunderstanding regarding Twitter's potential removal from the 'App Store," Musk said in a tweet. "Tim was clear Apple never considered doing this."

Apple declined to comment. Mr. Musk did not respond to a request for comment.

The meeting appeared to avoid what threatened to become a major spat between two of the titans of the technology. Mr Musk had taken aim at Apple's power over the App Store, which is the sole distributor of apps on more than a billion iPhones worldwide. His complaints — about Apple's app approval policies and its practice of cutting app sales — resurrected an issue that had been raised by other companies, such as Spotify and Epic Games. Lawmakers and regulators around the world have scrutinized Apple's power over software distribution.

Under Mr. Musk, who took office in October, the Twitter's content policies were unclear, potentially putting the app at odds with Apple, which reviews all apps distributed through the App Store.

Mr. Musk reinstated former President Donald J. Trump's account, which was banned after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, and said he would offer amnesty to accounts suspended by alumni company executives. But Apple's rules prohibit hate speech or content. The company also monitors apps to ensure they use its built-in payment system to collect subscriptions, which allows Apple to collect up to 30% of sales.

In the past, Apple has raised concerns about developers who defy these policies and have slowed the approval of their apps for distribution. Mr. Musk said on Monday that Apple had threatened to do the same with Twitter without telling the social media company why.

Mr. Cook showed Mr. Musk ahead of a planned trip to Washington, where he is expected to meet with several Republican lawmakers, including Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. A row with Mr Musk had threatened to complicate those meetings because he accused Apple of trying to censor 'free speech' by limiting the distribution of Twitter on iPhones - an issue in Congress, where Republican leaders fear that Silicon Valley companies suppress conservative views. /p>

Mr. Cook has used charm offenses before. After Mr. Trump criticized Apple in 2018 for manufacturing its products overseas, Mr. Cook traveled to Washington to meet with him and joined a White House advisory board. Mr. Trump later dropped his criticism of Apple and hailed Mr. Cook as a "great leader because he calls me and the others don't".

< p class="css-798hid etfikam0">David McCabe contributed reporting.