Apple asked for a cut of Facebook’s ad sales years before it stifled Facebook’s ad sales

Apple and Meta may not be the best of friends right now, but at one point, Apple was in discussions with the social media company about how it could make more money from its presence on the App Store, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Apple reportedly argued that it deserved a cut of certain portions of Facebook's ad revenue. The specific ads in question were boosted posts, which let users pay to have their posts reach more people, the WSJ reports. Apple apparently argued boosted posts are in-app purchases, which it famously takes a portion of; Meta argued that they were ads, from which Apple doesn't get a share. It seems that Meta won out.

So Apple was perfectly fine with profiting off Facebook's anti-privacy business model, and only when Facebook declined did Apple go on its holier-than-thou privacy crusade against Facebook's ads business. Apple's privacy position is pure marketing, and any time Apple needs to choose between money and privacy, money wins every time. Whether it's Google paying Apple billions to be the default search provider on iOS, Apple handing over all Chinese users' data to the Chinese government, or now, in dealing with Facebook, Apple will choose money over privacy every time.

Apple repeatedly calls privacy a fundamental human right, but human rights should not be for sale. It's yet another illustration of corporations being above the law - Apple is allowed to just lie left, right, and centre without any legal repercussions.