Apple May Soon Have to Choose Between China’s WeChat, and Elon Musk’s Twitter.

While the Apple vs. Twitter beef appears to be squashed for now, it remains to be seen how long Silicon Valley’s China simps can avoid the inevitable clashes.

Elon Musk recently revealed that Apple had threatened to remove Twitter from its App Store. Two days later, after meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook, Musk tweeted that the threat was simply a misunderstanding.

Musk’s free speech aspirations for Twitter appear to be what put the company in Apple’s crosshairs. While Musk may have dodged a bullet this time, the prospect of a ruinous delisting will loom as long as Apple’s duopoly (alongside Google) over the app market endures. This control has made Apple one of the most powerful gatekeepers of the internet.

Apple joined a coalition of woke corporations intent on derailing Musk’s agenda. While most in the coalition could only withhold their advertising funds, Apple wields unique power over the internet. For mobile app developers and social media companies, App Store access is critical to the success of their business. As Musk noted, “Apple and Google effectively control access to most of the Internet via their app stores.” When a company is delisted from the App Store, they lose access to their customers. That is an immediate, existential problem.

Apple also stands accused of harassing Telegram, another free speech application that is an alternative to the left’s censorship apparatus in Silicon Valley. When Telegram attempts to roll out new updates for its users, Apple reportedly delays approval of the update. This damages the user experience and threatens Telegram’s ability to stay relevant.

Apple has a history of questionable business practices. While the company may be based in Cupertino and incorporated in the United States, Apple does not always act like an American company. Instead of advancing American values, Apple often choses to work with the oppressive Chinese Communist Party.

When protesters in China took to the streets this month to oppose the regime’s harsh COVID lockdowns, Apple was quick to help the communist government of China by disabling AirDrop, the primary method of communication for the protesters.

Three years earlier, when the citizens of Hong Kong protested against the Chinese government, Apple similarly removed the app that protesters had been using to communicate and organize.

Apple doesn’t just take orders from China, they depend on China for labor and the manufacturing of their flagship devices, such as the iPhone. In 2016, the company reportedly entered a nearly $275 billion deal with Chinese officials to develop China’s “technological prowess” and economy. As Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) noted in a recent letter to Tim Cook, nearly 95 percent of Apple’s iPhones are now made in Chinese factories. Further, China is Apple’s second largest consumer market, making up more than a fifth of the company’s revenue.

Apple is clearly eager to work with the CCP, even if it means helping the regime suppress free speech. Yet the company seems loath to cooperate with the U.S. government, even on matters of national security. When FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr asked Apple to remove TikTok from the App Store, Apple chose to keep the app available to American consumers—even though the CCP uses the app to spy on the United States. 

Another, wider point, is that Musk has expressed his interest in building an “X” app similar to China’s WeChat. The Chinese app is owned by the same tech giant, Tencent, which owns a number of video game studios, music apps, and more. It allows for far more than social media, including payment processing, instant messaging, and multiplayer games. China evidently wants to keep its monopoly in this area, and Apple may well be willing to hear their protests.

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