Zuckerberg indirectly called out Apple for misleading claims about user privacy, while Tim Cook launched a few veiled attacks too.
The equation between Apple and Facebook is apparently at a tipping point right now and might soon evolve into a long-drawn court battle over anti-trust allegations. After taking potshots at each other for a while – with Facebook even pushing full-page newspaper ads to make its point – over an iOS privacy update that could hurt Facebook’s ad-tracking business severely, the social media giant is ready to duke it out against Apple in court by filing an anti-trust lawsuit. In fact, The Information reports that Facebook has been preparing an anti-trust case against Apple for a while now and might finally go ahead with the legal proceedings. “With the aid of outside legal counsel, Facebook for months has been preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Apple that would allege the iPhone-maker abused its power in the smartphone market by forcing app developers to abide by App Store rules that Apple’s own apps don’t have to follow, according to two people with direct knowledge of Facebook’s efforts,” the report says, This would be the second major anti-trust battle for Apple after Fortnite developer Epic Games dragged the company into a lawsuit over what it claims exorbitant App Store charges and the policy around in-app payments. In the case of Facebook though, the report mentions that despite harboring extreme objection to Apple’s privacy updates, the company may ultimately decide against filing an anti-trust lawsuit.
