Elon, Twitter, Apple, & Tesla: A Soap Opera

Twitter CEO Elon Musk has resolved the “misunderstanding” with Apple. Earlier this week, Musk posted a tweet claiming Apple threatened to remove the Twitter App from the App Store. Musk’s tweet stirred controversy even though he did not present proof that such a threat was made. 

There could be a few things going on here:

1️⃣ It could have been a legitimate beef with Apple.

2️⃣ It could have been a distraction from Twitter's many troubles.

3️⃣ He is courting controversy to make Twitter relevant again.

Freedom of speech is not something that can be engineered. It is much more complicated than whether someone can say whatever they want to say and whether online platforms even allow them to say it.

At the end of the day, though, how can anyone trust a guy who made a flippant offer to buy a company, tried to back out of it, followed through with the purchase under threat of a lawsuit, and has since embroiled it in turmoil?

Meanwhile, electric-vehicle maker Nio, a Tesla competitor in its China market, has entered a partnership with Chinese tech giant Tencent to improve its software; Tesla recalled 80,000 of its cars in China; and Tesla is gradually losing market share in the U.S. Market.

As Tesla loses ground, its competitors are gaining on them, and as Musk digs himself out of one hole, he digs himself into another one.