Honestly If apple can't afford to stand up to FB who can ?

I dislike Apples closed ecosystem (anf google trying to do the same), but if it can weaken FB's grip on people, it might bring some benefit even to non apple customers.

Obviously not as big, but they kicked Fortnite out of the App Store. So there is precedent for them holding the line.

They definitely do, Apple has revoked their developer certificate before[1], and this is really the next logical step if Facebook keeps fucking around

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/apple-hits-back-facebook-revo...

Apple pulled FB's enterprise cert a while back, basically pulling FB's internal apps offline. I don't think it's a huge leap to pulling the app from the App Store if it comes down to it. In fact, I'd argue that pulling the cert was a shot across FB's bow: "oh, you think we don't have the balls, do you? Anything else you think we don't have the testicular fortitude for?"

https://blog.malwarebytes.com/security-world/2019/01/apple-p...

The world would be a better place if they did.

I don't know how it was received (if at all) in the rest of the world, but in Australia at least Facebook is still reeling from their news ban, I suspect the populace would support Apple for a few days, and that's realistically as long as the ban would last if implemented.

Without a doubt. They nuked Fortnite from orbit, and had to be stopped by a judge from nuking Epic's developer cert, which would have killed any app using the unreal engine.

They may not remove FB but they may just stop accepting updates if Facebook does not comply

Well, once they launch Applebook, they won't need fb anymore