Twitter has endured several changes preceding the company’s acquisition by Elon Musk. Most notably, the account of former U.S. President Donald Trump has been reinstated, contradicting its initial termination–resulting from the incidents which occurred on January 6, 2021–while highlighting Musk’s prioritization of free speech policy. Specifically, this gesture was finalized in coherence with the results of a sitewide poll issued by Musk, revealing 52% of the 15 million votes to be in favor of the ban’s lift. However, major companies–including Apple and Google–have indicated the possible removal of twitter from their app stores in response to such reconstruction efforts.
“...Apple demanded our apps filter some search terms from being returned. If we did not filter the terms, our apps would not be allowed in the store,” mentioned LBRY, a decentralized content and publishing platform similar to Twitter. Implied within further tweets, Musk views such processes of extensive content filtering as an infringement of free speech.
In response, conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler suggests Musk develop his own smartphone, proposing that “...half the country would happily ditch the biased, snooping iPhone & Android”.
“I certainly hope it does not come to that, but… if there is no other choice, I will make an alternative phone,” Musk replied.
- Twitter (November 25, 2022)