Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk says he plans to take legal action against Apple, accusing the company of deliberately excluding his social media platform X and its Grok artificial intelligence chatbot from the App Store’s “Must Have” recommendations.
In a post on X late Monday, Musk questioned why neither X — which he said is the number one news app in the world — nor Grok, ranked fifth among all apps, appear in the section. “Are you playing politics? What gives? Inquiring minds want to know,” Musk wrote.
Allegations of Antitrust Violations
Grok is operated by Musk’s AI startup, xAI. Musk alleged that Apple is creating conditions where only OpenAI’s products can reach the top spot in the App Store, calling it “an unequivocal antitrust violation.” He said xAI would take “immediate legal action” but offered no additional details.
Apple did not immediately respond to the accusations. The company has faced repeated antitrust scrutiny in recent years, including a recent court ruling that it violated an injunction in a case brought by Fortnite creator Epic Games.
Earlier this year, the European Union fined Apple €500 million for preventing app developers from directing users to cheaper payment options outside the App Store. In 2023, the EU fined the company nearly $2 billion for allegedly favoring its own music streaming service over competitors like Spotify.
As of early Tuesday, TikTok topped Apple’s App Store rankings, followed by Tinder, Duolingo, YouTube, and Bumble. OpenAI’s ChatGPT held the seventh position.
What The Author Thinks
If Musk follows through, this could become one of the most high-profile clashes yet between a tech billionaire and Apple’s App Store policies. Given Apple’s history of antitrust battles in both U.S. and European courts, another legal challenge from someone with Musk’s resources and public reach could intensify pressure on the company to change its practices. But it’s also possible this is more about public leverage than an actual lawsuit.
Featured image credit: Heute
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