Meta reignites its fight with Apple over platform power & developer freedom
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is once again accusing Apple of shutting out competition, framing open-source AI as the latest move in a long-running fight over who controls the future of mobile platforms.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Policies enacted by Apple for iPhone have long banned embedded app frameworks from third parties, affecting companies like Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. Apple says these restrictions are necessary to protect user privacy and system integrity.
In a new interview with Stratechery, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed those iOS policies stifled Facebook's early platform vision. He said Apple blocked the company's mobile platform plans over a decade ago, killing a key part of its business.
"Apple basically said, You can't have a platform within a platform,'" Zuckerberg recalled. By Facebook's 2012 IPO, in-app games and services made up about 20% of its business.
Zuckerberg described the restriction as one of several "arbitrary" rules that helped entrench Apple's dominance and forced developers to accept its terms. "That's one of the reasons why developers really want to use open models," he said.
Facebook has tried to fight back in court and in the press. It challenged Apple's App Store rules publicly and supported antitrust efforts behind the scenes, but those efforts have repeatedly failed. Meta's lawsuits, regulatory lobbying, and public pressure haven't moved the needle.
Meta's open-source AI tools aim to shift developer power
In April 2025, Meta launched the Llama API alongside its Llama 4 model family. Zuckerberg described the new API as a "reference implementation for the industry" that's priced at cost. "We're not trying to build a huge business around this," he said.
He now sees open-source AI as a way to bypass gatekeepers like Apple entirely. The API gives developers a reliable, unaltered version of the Llama model -- one they can use without third-party hosting, sudden API changes, or unclear content restrictions.
Apple's model appeals to developers who want stable APIs
"A big part of why we believe in building an open platform is partially the legacy of what's happened with mobile platforms," Zuckerberg said. "It's one of the reasons why we've become even more wanting to invest in that"
Releasing Llama as open source boosts Meta's influence, lowers infrastructure costs, and challenges Apple's closed ecosystem, even though Meta still relies on iOS for app distribution.
The war of words continues
Tim Cook hasn't responded directly to the new criticism, but he's repeatedly framed Apple's model as pro-user. He has argued App Store restrictions exist to protect privacy and security -- often in ways that implicitly criticize Meta.
"If a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, then it does not deserve our praise," Cook said in 2021. "It deserves reform."
Zuckerberg, for his part, has openly mocked Apple's innovation pace. In an interview on "The Joe Rogan Experience," he quipped "Steve Jobs invented the iPhone, and now they're just kind of sitting on it 20 years later."
Elsewhere, he's accused Apple of hurting consumers and developers alike with what he sees as monopolistic control.
Meta's long-term AI strategy
Zuckerberg outlined four priorities for Meta's AI push -- smarter ad automation, deeper engagement across its apps, scalable business messaging, and direct-to-user tools like Meta AI.
But Meta's AI hits a wall on Apple's platforms. It can't access Siri, Spotlight, or other system-level hooks, privileges Apple reserves for its own services.
While Meta champions openness, it lacks Apple's vertical integration and user trust around privacy. Apple offers developers stable APIs and built-in access to iOS users. Meta offers freedom from gatekeepers.
Zuckerberg's open-source pitch is a strategic play to reshape how AI is built and deployed. But without system access, it's still fighting uphill in an ecosystem where Apple sets the defaults.
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Comments
All of the above are things we DON’T want. Keep them, Meta! I’m with Apple on this one 100%
we don’t trust you to be anywhere near our devices, no one owes you access that you can’t with market trust in your own brand.