# Apple and Google Failed to Enforce App Store Policies Against Musk's Abusive Apps

DevFeed: [Apple and Google Failed to Enforce App Store Policies Against Musk's Abusive Apps](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/naked-power-26563.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://infrequently.org/2026/01/naked-power/>)

Author: Alex Russell

Published: 2026-01-20T00:00:00Z

Content type: opinion

Language: en

Sources: [Alex Russell](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/alex-russell.md>)

Topics: [X (Twitter)](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/twitter.md>), [Mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/mobile.md>), [Google](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/google.md>), [App](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/app.md>)

Tags: [app-store](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/app-store.md>), [apple](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/apple.md>), [browsers](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/browsers.md>), [business](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/business.md>), [competition](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/competition.md>), [elon-musk](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/elon-musk.md>), [google](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/google.md>), [mobile](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/mobile.md>), [phones](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/phones.md>), [speech](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/speech.md>), [twitter](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/twitter.md>)

## AI overview

An opinion article argues that Apple and Google failed to enforce their App Store policies against abusive Twitter apps, exposing tensions between stated safety principles, antitrust defenses and business interests.

## Source excerpt

Twitter's descent into a gutter of the lowest order has been wrenching: Elon Musk's Grok and the Mass Undressing Scandal As I draft this, a week later, it appears pressure from civil society, investigations by regulators, and outright bans on multiple continents have forced Musk to back down to an uncertain degree. As this scandal roiled, Twitter's apps have been continuously available in Google's Play and Apple's App Store, marking new lows in moral cowardice and non-enforcement of the duopolist's own policies. Now we sit on tenterhooks, wondering if the worst has actually passed. What outrage the will the valley's billionaire man-children unleash next? Meanwhile, we brace for this episode to embolden censorious authoritarians keen to suppress a free press and legitimate speech they dislike. This is the backdrop to Elizabeth Lopatto's must-read denunciation in The Verge: It is genuinely unbelievable to me that I wasted hours of my actual life on a court case where Apple explained it needed total control of its App Store to protect its users. Total control of the App Store was Apple's main argument against antitrust enforcement: The company insisted that its monopolistic control of what users could install on their phones was essential to create a walled garden where it could protect children from unsafe content. Ha! Ha ha ha!! -- Elizabeth Lopatto, "Tim Cook and Sundar Pichai are cowards, The Verge" Failure to react to the "everything app" going all-in on abuse of women and girls for weeks reveals the illegitimacy of their mobile monopolies1; anyone pretending otherwise is a fool or a dupe. We don't need to guess why they sat on their hands. Acting against Musk's abusive apps might put Apple and Google out of favour with an erratic, power-tripping administration which in turn could impact short-term business prospects. Their stated principles are incompatible with maximizing shareholder value under competitive authoritarianism. Recall that both firms lent their mono