Musk wants to talk to Tim Cook about leaving X creators’ money out of Apple’s hands

Elon Musk wants creators on X (the social media platform formerly known as Twitter) to keep more of the money they generate on the site for as long as possible. Musk did post on X (via The Verge) about a change he is making in favor of content creators on the platform. He wrote, “While we had previously said that X would keep nothing for the 12 months, then 10%, we are amending that policy to X keeps nothing forever, until payout exceeds $100k, then 10%. First 12 months is still free for all.”Apple, as most know, takes a 15% to 30% cut of in-app purchases made in the App Store and that includes any subscriptions sold by content creators on X. Musk would like Apple to limit its 30% cut to the portion of a payout that is kept by Twitter. And to get Apple to make the change, Musk said on his X post that he will meet with Apple CEO Tim Cook to see if he will make the change.

This isn’t the first time that Musk has complained about the so-called Apple Tax. Last year, the multi-billionaire called Apple’s cut a “hidden 30% tax on the Internet.” Apple threatened to yank his social media platform, known at the time as Twitter, out of the App Store. After visiting Cook in Cupertino, Musk ended up saying “Good conversation. Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”

You might recall that around Thanksgiving time last year, rumors swirled about both Apple and Google removing Twitter from the App Store and Play Store respectively. Do you remember what Musk said he was going to do? He said that he would develop his own phone (the Tesla phone?) to spank Apple and Google and to keep Twitter relevant with phone users.

Tim Cook might come off as a folksy, friendly guy with his public persona, but when it comes to the Apple Tax, the man is a fierce, take no prisoners executive who would make Gordon Gekko cower. Musk might hope that he can talk Cook into agreeing to his plan, and yeah, some so-called “Reader apps” are allowed to link to the developer’s own web site to allow subscribers to manage their accounts and bypass the Apple Tax. But Cook allowed this to in order to get lawmakers and attorneys to back away from forcing even deeper changes to the Apple Tax.

We wouldn’t bet on Musk getting his way even if he meets again with Tim Cook.