In April, Elon Musk made his first attempt to acquire Twitter. He successfully paid $44 billion for the platform on October 27. According to The New York Times, he removed at least four employees as soon as the deal was finalised, including the chief financial officer and chief executive officer. This caused a domino effect of changes to occur across the platform.
In a message sent to advertisers after the deal was finalised, Musk tweeted, “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it is crucial to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of opinions can be argued in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence.” There is currently a significant risk that far-right and far-left echo chambers on social media will spread more hate and split our society.
Days later, Musk retweeted an anti-LGBTQ+ conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi, who had been attacked on October 28 at his and Nancy Pelosi’s San Francisco home, in a now-deleted tweet. Musk shared an article promoting a conspiracy theory in response to a post from Hillary Clinton on the Santa Monica Observer, a right-wing website that has previously promoted conspiracies. According to the Associated Press, Musk even shared an article suggesting that Clinton herself had died in 9/11 and had been replaced by a lookalike.
According to Forbes, Musk is the richest man in the world with a net worth of $203 billion, according to Time Magazine. According to The New York Times, he has pledged to relax Twitter’s rules on content moderation and has started letting users who had been suspended back onto the site.
Twitter is infested with challenges, bots, harassment, and political actors when Musk takes over. The Election Integrity Partnership’s study from Nov. 1 identified six networks with ties to China and Iran that had been trying to influence users in the run-up to the midterm elections. It was discovered that one of the networks connected to China shared well-known right-wing talking points, and this is by no means an isolated instance. In recent years, Twitter has made great efforts to filter its material, but Musk’s latest remarks may undo those efforts.
According to Insider, shortly after taking over, Musk fired more than half of the company’s employees. However, according to Bloomberg, he has since tried to rehire some of them. Many Twitter employees, celebrities, and public figures have chosen to leave the network in retaliation to his takeover. See who deleted something on a Twitter that Elon Musk owns by reading on.
Elton John
The musician tweeted on December 9 that he was quitting the social media platform “My entire life, I’ve worked to utilise music to unite people. I am nevertheless saddened to see how false information is currently being utilised to polarise our world. Given Twitter’s recent policy change, which will allow false information to go unchecked, I’ve chosen to stop using it.”
Gigi Hadid
On October 5, Gigi Hadid stopped using Twitter. She gave her reasons on Instagram. According to People, she stated on an Instagram Story, “I cancelled my Twitter account today.” “I don’t want to be a part of an institution that has been a sewer of hate and prejudice for a long time, but especially under its new leadership.” I can’t argue that Twitter is a safe place for anyone, nor is it a social tool that will do more good than damage, she continued, adding that she was “just sorry to the fans, who I’ve loved communicating with via Twitter for a decade.”
Jim Carrey
On November 29, Griffin Carrey announced his withdrawal from Twitter, the only social media site he has used up until that point. He shared an animated clip with his tweet and stated, “I’m leaving Twitter, but first here’s a cartoon I did with my friend Jimmy Hayward. “It is based on a painting I did of an eccentric old lighthouse keeper who stood naked in a storm, called on the angels, and shone his lantern to lead us through a perilous night. I adore everyone of you so much! “.
Ken Olin
With one more tweet pleading for kindness, the actor and director stepped down from the stage. “Hey everyone, I’m leaving. Absent any bias, “He composed. “Let’s not lose hope. Let’s defend democracy. Try to be gentler, please. Try to preserve the planet, please. Let’s make an effort to be more kind. Let’s try to bring about world peace.”
LeBron James
LeBron James hasn’t departed the stage, but he has voiced his concerns with Musk’s takeover. In response to a report that revealed that use of the N-word on Twitter rose by more than 50% after Musk gained control, he responded, “I dont know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns twitter.” “However, I will add that if this is accurate, I sincerely hope he and his supporters take this seriously because it is extremely alarming. So many utterly unsuitable people claiming that hate speech is protected speech.”
Mick Foley
Mick Foley, a retired professional wrestler, made his exit known on Facebook. Since the new ownership — and the disinformation and hatred it seems to be fostering — has his stomach in a knot, he added, “I decided I needed a @twitter vacation.” “I genuinely love communicating with each of you online, but sometimes it can be too much. Though I plan to return in a few weeks, I’ll still post on Facebook and Instagram throughout that time. I hope that everyone will treat one another with respect. If you can, please vote as well; it looks like our democracy is just hanging on.”
Sara Bareilles
Singer On October 29, Sara Bareilles departed the stage, writing, “Welp. Twitter has been enjoyable. I’m out. People, I’ll see you on other platforms. I’m sorry, but I just don’t like this one.”
Shonda Rhimes
“Shonda Rhimes, the creator of “Bridgerton,” logged out of Twitter on October 29 and stated, “Not staying around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.”
Téa Leoni
“Hello to everybody. Let’s see where we are once the dust settles when I leave Twitter today,” “Madame Secretary “Before cancelling her account on October 29, the actress Téa Leoni posted on Twitter, according to Deadline. “Today’s dust exposed much too much hatred and far too much negativity. I wish you all love, kindness, and possibilities.”
Toni Braxton
Toni Braxton announced her decision to leave the platform in a tweet, writing, “Since this platform was acquired, I’ve seen some “free speech” that has astonished and sickened me. Because hate speech disguised as “free expression” is intolerable, I have decided to avoid Twitter because it is no longer a safe venue for me, my sons, and other POC.”
Whoopi Goldberg
In a Nov. 7 episode of “The View,” Goldberg declared that she was “done with Twitter” as of that night. According to the official Twitter feed for “The View,” she remarked, “I’m going to go out, and if things settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back.”
