Facebook itself acknowledges that there are difficult times ahead. When Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature is launched for everyone with the release of iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5, it will ask users to sign up if they want to continue being tracked for advertising purposes. Most people are expected to sign out automatically, and Facebook and its executives are naughty. The social networking company offered a full page ad Apple in December; in the same month, Facebook’s VP of Advertising and Business, Dan Levy, said: “Apple is acting competitively by using its control over the App Store to take advantage of creators and small businesses. Full point.”
Zuckerberg told his team to inflict pain on Apple in 2018
What has upset Facebook so much is the possible drop in advertising revenue that he says could occur once Apple’s app transparency tracking feature is distributed. For the whole of 2020, Facebook generated $ 85 billion in advertising revenue and the company itself said last year that as much as 50% in advertising revenue was at risk thanks to Apple’s ATT. That means a lot of money is at stake.
Mark Zuckerberg told his team to inflict pain on Apple after Tim Cook commented in 2018
This is not the first time Zuckerberg has shown serious hostility towards Apple. According to the Wall Street Journal, in 2018, when it was reported that 87 million Facebook subscribers had stolen their personal data through a firm called Cambridge Analytica, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a national television interview that Apple will never make the product of its customers. Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg told his team privately at a subsequent meeting that “we have to inflict pain” on Apple because the technology giant treated his business so badly. In public, those familiar with his answer say Zuckerberg responded to Apple’s executive by calling his comments “extremely slippery” and “not in line with the truth at all.”
The battle between Apple and Facebook reminds us of the old Westerns. Apple wears the white hat as he drives in as the good guys who want to maintain privacy throughout the city. Facebook wears the black hat and terrorizes citizens. But Facebook considers Apple’s actions hypocritical, as it does a lot of business in China where there is not much privacy. Apple’s Cook probably had Facebook in mind when he gave a speech last month in which he set out ‘conspiracy theories blocked by algorithms’. Coming days after the Capitol was under siege, the executive’s comments were directed at Facebook users who spread unfounded conspiracy theories about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election and other false stories driven by QAnon believers and other conspiracy theorists. Again, the CEO did not refer to Facebook by name, but it was clear it was Facebook he asked for because he has a business model that he says promotes violence and divisiveness.
Both Apple and Facebook have different plans for the Internet, which also intensifies the battle between the two businesses. The WSJ notes that Facebook is looking for “to catch eyeballs on every possible device and platform and make money with it.” Apple focuses on its hardware and promotes its privacy platform as a reason why consumers should buy their devices and benefit its ecosystem.
A Facebook spokesperson named Dani Lever said the company believes consumers can enjoy both personal service and privacy and that Facebook provides both. Lever says Facebook is ‘deliberately facing Apple’ on behalf of businesses and developers who will be hurt by Apple’s App Tracking Transparency feature. She stated that this dispute is not personal and added: “It’s not about two companies. It’s about the future of free internet. Apple claims it’s about privacy, but it’s about profit, and we join others in demonstrating their self-elected, competitive behavior. ‘
