Apple returns to X: Navigating Musk dynamics amid controversies
Apple is among the companies that, as part of a boycott of Elon Musk's platform X, stopped placing its advertisements there over a year ago. The reason was the controversial posts by the billionaire and the unchecked hate speech on the former Twitter. A close associate of Donald Trump, however, is now seeing a resurgence.
MacRumors noticed that Apple and AppleTV accounts on platform X are promoting Safari's privacy features, a browser from the iPhone maker, reports "Rzeczpospolita".
The newspaper recalls that Apple was one of the giants that withdrew ads from the former Twitter over a year ago due to "the failure to remove illegal or harmful content, including posts related to disinformation, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and other hate speech."
The decision was made when Elon Musk, owner of X, under a tweet accusing Jews of "hating whites," wrote that it was "fact and truth." The boycott led to the former Twitter's value dropping to one-third of the amount the billionaire spent on the platform (he paid $44 billion CAD).
"Although X's approach to content moderation hasn't changed much, after the elections in the USA, the relationships between big tech and the world's richest man have changed. Musk is now an influential friend and collaborator of the new US President Donald Trump. And apparently, they have started to reckon with this, humbly returning to the platform," writes "Rz", adding that, for example, Amazon plans to increase its spending on X.
Special government employee
Elon Musk holds the status of a special government employee, said Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, at the beginning of February at 1 p.m. ET. She stated that he is "a once-in-a-generation business leader" and a friend of the president who "also has some common sense."
Leavitt said that Elon Musk's main task is "the elimination of fraud, waste, and abuse" within government structures.
Musk and his team, affiliated with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), have taken control of key government agencies, gaining access to federal employee data and the Treasury Department's payment system.
