Apple’s Tim Cook criticises social media practices, intensifying Facebook battle

Apple Inc Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook on Thursday criticised polarisation and misinformation on social media, intensifying a battle between the iPhone maker and Facebook Inc.
In remarks delivered on the Computers, Privacy and Data Protection convention, Cook critiqued apps that he argued accumulate an excessive amount of private data and prioritise “conspiracy theories and violent incitement simply because of their high rates of engagement.”
“At a moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to a theory of technology that says all engagement is good engagement — the longer the better — and all with the goal of collecting as much data as possible,” Cook stated.
He didn’t identify Facebook, however the two corporations have been in a high-profile dispute. Apple is getting ready to implement privateness notifications that many within the digital promoting trade imagine will trigger some customers to say no to permit the usage of ad-targeting instruments.
Facebook has accused Apple of anticompetitive conduct as a result of Apple has a rising catalog of paid apps and its personal digital promoting enterprise. Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday stated Apple has “every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work.”
Cook on Thursday criticised social media practices that he stated undermine public belief in vaccines and encourage customers to hitch extremist teams.
“It is long past time to stop pretending that this approach doesn’t come with a cost — of polarisation, of lost trust and, yes, of violence,” Cook stated. “A social dilemma cannot be allowed to become a social catastrophe.”
In response to Cook’s remarks, Facebook stated in a press release that it believes “Apple is behaving anti-competitively by using their control of the App Store to benefit their bottom line at the expense of app developers and small businesses.”