Why does Apple keep banning Telegram, but never X?

Elon Musk in the Oval Office on May 30th, 2025. | Photo by Kevin Dietsch / Getty Images For roughly an hour this week, Telegram vanished from Apple's App Store.

Even during that blip, it was a stunning absence for such a major app: an avenue of communication for more than 1 billion users around the world, used widely as a secure platform for people who live in countries under censorship.