MUSK SAYS HE’D CONSIDER ‘ALTERNATIVE PHONE’ IF APPLE, GOOGLE REMOVE TWITTER FROM APP STORES

Sat 26 November 2022:

Twitter CEO Elon Musk announced on Saturday that he’d consider making an “alternative phone” in the event that Twitter is removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Twitter is now being investigated by both the Apple and Google app stores, and Musk is concerned that the microblogging platform will be removed.

Musk made the comments on Friday night in response to conservative commentator Liz Wheeler, who tweeted, “If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?”

“I certainly hope it does not come to that,” Musk replied, “but, yes, if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone.”

If Apple & Google boot Twitter from their app stores, @elonmusk should produce his own smartphone. Half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android. The man builds rockets to Mars, a silly little smartphone should be easy, right?

— Liz Wheeler (@Liz_Wheeler) November 25, 2022

Musk’s comments come after Phil Schiller, an Apple fellow who’s responsible for leading the App Store, deleted his Twitter account.

Last week, Yoel Roth, who quit Twitter as Head of Trust and Safety, said as Musk perpetuates lack of legitimacy through his impulsive changes and tweet-length pronouncements about platform rules, Twitter is now facing a close scrutiny by both Apple and Google app stores.

In a New York Times article amid the #RIPTwitter trending on social media, Roth said that “Twitter will have to balance its new owner’s goals against the practical realities of life on Apple and Google’s internet, no easy task for the employees who have chosen to remain”.

“And as I departed the company, the calls from the app review teams had already begun,” Roth wrote.
The instances of racial slurs on Twitter have increased since Musk bought the influential platform, despite assurances from the platform that it has reduced hate activity.

Roth said that “the moderating influences of advertisers, regulators and — most critically of all — app stores may be welcome for those of us hoping to avoid an escalation in the volume of dangerous speech online”.

Musk tweeted a poll on Wednesday, asking Twitter users if the company should “offer a general amnesty to suspended accounts, provided that they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam?”

72% of respondents voted yes, and Musk then tweeted that “Amnesty begins next week.”

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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