Telegram CEO Pavel Durov has criticised Apple after his instant messaging platform was forced to pull a feature from its iOS app that let content creators make money without paying a portion of it to Apple.
In a blog post on Friday, Durov explained that some content creators on Telegram started using third-party payment bots to sell access to individual posts in their Telegram channels.
“This way, content creators could receive close to 100% of whatever their subscribers paid, which was great,” Durov said.
However, Apple was unhappy that creators monetised their content without paying its 30% App Store commission.
As a result, it forced Telegram to disable paid posts on iOS devices.
Durov blasted the latest development as “just another example of how a trillion-dollar monopoly abuses its market dominance at the expense of millions of users who are trying to monetise their own content.”
He called on authorities currently reviewing Apple’s App Store policies as part of various antitrust investigations to take the fight to Apple.
“I hope that the regulators in the EU, India and elsewhere start taking action before Apple destroys more dreams and crushes more entrepreneurs with a tax that is higher than any government-levied VAT,” said Durov.
“In the meantime, we at Telegram shall work to offer creators powerful and easy-to-use tools to monetise their content — outside of Apple’s restrictive ecosystem.”
In recent years, lawmakers and major software developers have increasingly scrutinised and criticised Apple’s iron fist on payments made through apps hosted on its App Store.
Among the best-known instances is its feud with Fortnite studio Epic Games, which has boiled over into a years-long legal battle.
A federal judge in that matter previously ordered that Apple allow developers to include mechanisms within their apps to direct users to other payment platforms.
That change has been delayed pending Apple’s appeal of the verdict.
Tesla, SpaceX, and Twitter boss Elon Musk previously slammed Apple’s fee as an effective 30% tax on the Internet.