Is Elon Musk launching a smartphone? This is what we know
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Elon Musk suggested he would consider launching his own smartphone if Twitter is pulled over from Apple and Google’s app stores for policy violations.
Elon Musk said it would consider launching an alternative smartphone platform to rival the iPhone and Android if Apple and Google boot Twitter from their respective app stores. Weeks after Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition, Twitter reinstated the accounts of a myriad of shady characters previously banned from the platform for hate speech and misinformation. Since then, many observers have expressed concern that it could lead to Twitter becoming an even more toxic hellscape than it already is.
Wary of the prospect of increased vitriol and misinformation on Twitter, many major advertisers have already distanced themselves from the platform in recent weeks. According to reports, most of them are waiting for concrete policy on content management and moderation issues to be settled before deciding on a future course of action. Musk, however, continues as usual, making ad-hoc decisions that further confuse everyone. As if that weren’t enough, he’s firing Twitter employees who contradict him or speak out against him, in direct contrast to his claims to be a “Absolutist freedom of expression”.
Elon Musk recently said that it would consider launching its own smartphone platform. Musk made the comment in response to Twitter user and right-wing commentator Liz Wheeler, who asked him if he would want to produce his own smartphone if Apple and Google remove Twitter from their app stores. In response to the inquiry, Musk said he expected neither company to remove Twitter from their respective storefronts. However, if things came to that, she would stay with him “no other option” than throw one “alternative phone”. Since then, Musk has posted several tweets against Apple and claimed that the iPhone maker has threatened to kick Twitter out of the App Store without providing any reason or proof. Musk even tagged Apple CEO Tim Cook in a tweet, asking him why Apple has pulled advertising from the platform.
Twitter could be suspended for content violations
The development comes days after Twitter’s former head of trust and security, Yoel Roth, wrote in News from New York an op-ed that claimed Twitter risked being kicked out of the Apple and Google app stores if it became a free-for-all without reasonable content moderation. According to Roth, “Failure to comply with Apple and Google’s guidelines would be catastrophic, risking Twitter’s ouster from its app stores and making it harder for billions of potential users to obtain Twitter services.”
Meanwhile, Musk’s tweets invited applause and derision in equal measure, with Twitter users seemingly split on whether an entirely new smartphone platform is a good idea. While some, like smartphone2000 scoffed at the idea, saying it would help Musk quickly lose more money, others, like JustMyDrewCents claimed that Google and Apple are already afraid Elon MuskThe new imaginary smartphone platform to stop its duopoly.
Source: Elon Musk/Twitter 1, 2, smartphone2000/Twitter, JustMyDrewCents/TwitterNYT
