Facebook CEO to staff: “We must hurt Apple” | NOW

According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, his company must “hurt” its competitor Apple. He told staff in a private meeting, insiders say The Wall Street Journal.

With this, the CEO wants to oppose recent actions by Apple, which will limit the use of private data. Applications like Facebook’s must ask for permission before they can process the information. According to Apple, this is necessary to protect user privacy.

Facebook recently ran full-page ads in US newspapers criticizing Apple’s new policy. Small business owners would suffer from the policy, the tech giant believes. They would no longer be able to advertise properly on Facebook.

It’s unclear exactly how Zuckerberg intends to hurt his competitor. In previous internal emails, Zuckerberg reportedly suggested releasing apps for Android first and later for iPhones, but that hasn’t been done to date.

Facebook would also have a hard time releasing app updates, as Apple would take a long time to approve them. An update can’t be released until an Apple employee reviews it. Zuckerberg is said to suspect Apple boss Tim Cook of blocking updates.

“It’s not a personal matter for Facebook”

A Facebook spokesperson denies to the newspaper that the fight between Apple and Facebook is personal, and reiterates that Facebook is committed to small business owners and developers affected by the privacy policy.

“Apple claims it’s about privacy, but it’s really about profit,” the spokesperson said. “We want to draw attention to this abuse of power.”