Tensions between Apple and Facebook are at an all-time high. iOS 14’s privacy features have drawn a big fat wall between the two companies, and the battle continues to intensify. Latest reports claim that Mark Zuckerberg has asked his employees to ‘inflict pain’ on Apple.
The Wall Street Journal released a detailed report Facebook-Apple row. The report starts detailing how Tim and Mark’s relation has been in the past. It highlights that Tim once called Facebook ‘a partner’ during a 2014 interview. It claims that Cook and Zuckerberg were on the same side, as Google’s Android operating system posed a threat to both the companies.
In 2014, Apple introduced stringent ways that would make it harder for Facebook to track usage and target ads to users. Then in 2017, Apple slowed down Facebook’s app updates, which Facebook employees said was intentional. It infuriated Mark, and then a face-to-face meeting in 2017 between the two CEOs resulted in a“tense standoff.” Finally in 2018, during an interview about Facebook’s Cambridge Analytica scandal, Tim said that if he was Facebook’s CEO, his company ‘won’t be in such a situation.’ Mark, publically, said that Cook’s comments were “glib” and untruthful.
This was the final blow between the two CEOs, the report claims.
Today’s report claims that the battle has taken another turn, wherein Mark has asked his employees to “inflict pain” on Apple. The report also says that Facebook wanted to join hands with Epic Games in 2020, when the company filed an antitrust lawsuit. While Facebook decided to side, and do nothing about the situation, it did agree to provide documents to Epic and assist when necessary. Facebook is also said to be working on its own lawsuit and has threatened Apple to take it to court.
With the launch of iOS 14, Facebook and Apple’s battle has taken another turn. It ran a full-page ad attacking Apple’s App Tracking Transparency and the threat it poses to the internet as a whole. Despite Wall Street Journal’s claims Facebook’s spokeswoman Dani Lever has stated that the tension between the two companies is personal, and Facebook is standing up for the whole internet.
The report highlights:
“A Facebook spokeswoman, Dani Lever, said the choice between personalized services and privacy was a “false trade-off,” and that Facebook provides both. “This is not about two companies. This is about the future of the free internet,” she said, asserting that small businesses, app developers and consumers lose out under Apple’s new rules. “Apple claims this is about privacy, but it’s about profit, and we’re joining others to point out their self-preferencing, anticompetitive behavior.”
She denied that the dispute between the two companies is personal, and said that Facebook is “deliberately standing up to Apple” on behalf of businesses and developers hurt by the new policy.”
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What are your thoughts on Mark’s comments? Do you side with Apple over the privacy battle, or with Facebook? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below!
