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Musk says spat with Apple over App Store ejection threat for Twitter was 'misunderstanding'

Lovely visit to meet Tim Cook at Apple Park HQ forces big change in tone from world's richest man

The one-sided battle of the billionaires is over before it really began, with Elon Musk saying his spat with Apple boss Tim Cook over perceived threats to remove Twitter from the App Store was a “misunderstanding”

Musk claimed earlier this week that Apple was going to "withhold" the social media platform's app from its digital store for an unspecified reason. He then launched a series of attacks on the company, using his near 120 million followers to turn up the heat.

Amid the noise, he retweeted a parody of Apple's 1984 video by Fortnite maker Epic Games, and created a poll to ask his fans if Apple should "publish all censorship actions it has taken that affect its customers."

Despite helping to whip some of his fans into a frenzy, Musk has now thanked Apple CEO Tim Cook, in a tonally very different tweet, for "taking me around Apple's beautiful HQ."

As pointed out by the New York Times, Cook has used charm offensives before to smooth out situational crinkles, including joining a White House advisory panel after being criticized by former president Donald Trump.

Musk didn't specify why he thought Twitter was going to be ejected from Apple's online store, and neither did he confirm if the other things discussed included Apple's advertising budget with Twitter.

Days ago Musk said Apple had "mostly stopped advertising on Twitter. Do they hate free speech in America?"

Apple has maintained a dignified silence throughout, obviously preferring to invite Elon into the fold rather than exchanging blows on a public platform he owns and where he has plenty of obsequious followers.

Outside of political circles and fans, Musk's antics with Apple this week received some support from the tech industry, specifically Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg, who – for obvious reasons – claimed Apple wields too much power over the mobile apps landscape.

"Apple has sort of singled themselves out as the only company that is trying to control, like unilaterally, what apps get on a device," the Meta boss told the New York Times' Dealbook Summit in New York. "I don't think that's a sustainable or good place to be."

We have asked Apple to comment. ®

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