Some statements attributed to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and reported by the Wall Street Journal have added further details to the scenario of recent sharp differences between the social network and Apple, which has been reported for some time now. The words date back to 2018 and to the events related to the Cambridge Analytica case, which caused Facebook heavy criticism regarding the methods of managing users' personal data. “We have to hurt him,” Zuckerberg told his collaborators, commenting on an opinion expressed by Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding the fact that Apple, thanks to its policies, would never have found itself in the situation in which Facebook was then. Already at the time, Zuckerberg publicly defined Cook's words as “extremely superficial” and “not at all in accordance with the truth”.
At the root of the recent disagreements between Apple and other large Internet companies, Facebook and Google above all, is Apple's decision to introduce a feature in an upcoming update of its operating system for mobile devices (iOS) whereby users will be required to consent to the tracking of their online activities for the personalization of advertisements by app manufacturers. According to a first estimate by Forbes, this decision by Apple would result in losses of 14 billion euros for Google and 6.5 billion euros for Facebook in annual tax revenues.
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Other reasons for disagreement between Apple and the other companies surfaced publicly in January. In a remotely delivered speech at a data protection conference, Cook harshly criticized tracking tools, which he believes turn consumers into advertising products. He had also criticized “algorithm-fueled conspiracy theories,” linking them to recent social unrest and alluding to the attack on Congress in Washington. Zuckerberg has repeatedly called Apple one of the main market competitors, accusing it of abusing its control power to protect its interests by interfering with the functioning of Facebook apps.
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According to a debate cited by the Wall Street Journal and recently also addressed by other analysts, the dispute between Apple and Facebook coincides with a clash of opposing ideas and visions on the future of the Internet and, consequently, of the companies that will have greater control over it. Facebook wants to capture and monetize users' attention on every possible device and platform on the market, while Apple wants to attract as many users as possible to its devices by promoting itself as a company attentive to user privacy.
Facebook's business model is mainly focused on advertisements, especially personalized ones. Apple's model provides, in addition to the revenue deriving from the direct sale of the hardware, those related to the sale of third-party services and applications on its digital store, for which it retains a variable commission (up to 30 percent). Apple also receives billions of dollars a year from holding Alphabet to keep Google as the default search engine on its Safari browser.
The confrontation between Facebook and Apple is taking place against the backdrop of a wider international attempt, also carried out by authorities in Europe, to limit and regulate the power of the big Internet tech companies. In December Facebook was accused by the Federal Trade Commission, the US government agency that deals with consumer protection and privacy, of managing in agreement with Google an illegal monopoly for controlling advertising that cuts others out of the market. rival operators. And Apple has long been accused of malpractice through policies deemed anti-competitive.
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Dani Lever, a Facebook spokesperson heard by the WSJ, disputed the description of the dispute between Apple and Facebook in terms of the choice between privacy and personalized advertising, because Facebook offers both choices. “Apple says it's a question of privacy, but it's a question of profits,” Lever said. The objective of the US authorities and antitrust bodies is mainly that of not imposing regulations that end up protecting incumbents from the detriment of emerging ones, favoring a radicalization of current monopolies. “Facebook continues to express its support for 'internet regulation', but it's not because it wants to help the competition,” Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, a member of the antitrust subcommittee, told the WSJ.
The relationship between Apple and Facebook hasn't always been so conflicted, recalls the WSJ. In 2014, Apple's hostilities seemed to be more focused on Google and specifically on the competition represented by the Android operating system. It is in that context that Cook called Facebook “a partner”. The rapid growth of the smartphone market in general and the iPhone market had led Facebook to invest more and more in apps. And that had reactivated and intensified a long pre-existing debate about user privacy, something Apple had been working on internally for some time. “Ask him. Ask him every time. Have the user tell you to stop asking if they are bothered by the question. Let him know exactly what you will do with his data, ”Steve Jobs said of sharing personal data online, during an event organized by the Wall Street Journal in 2011.
Frictions escalated after Apple tightened device security procedures and systems, and following Cook's hints that intelligence gathering was not Apple's core business, but rather of other profitable companies. from that type of business. Those statements annoyed Zuckerberg, and other Facebook executives and employees viewed Cook's attitude as hypocritical as a significant portion of Apple's business spanned China, a country where the protection of personal data isn't exactly a priority. There was also growing dissatisfaction with the time it took Apple to approve Facebook app updates.
A meeting between Cook and Zuckerberg to try to mitigate the effects of growing conflicts was organized in 2017, during an annual event among media and technology executives in Sun Valley, Idaho. It didn't go well, writes the WSJ. According to some people who spoke during that conversation, Zuckerberg criticized Cook for slowdowns in app reviews and referred to other differences between the two companies. Cook was not willing to give in on this point, and this further irritated his interlocutor.
In 2018, Facebook withdrew its own data security app called Onavo after Apple discovered it violated company policies regarding data collection. The following year, after discovering other apps that broke the rules, Apple also banned a search app and a number of other developer apps used by Facebook employees.
