A swathe of celebrities and corporations have announced they will be leaving X, formerly Twitter, after Donald Trump’s election and his appointment of the social media platform’s owner Elon Musk to the federal government.
The mass exodus includes stars like Oscar-winning actress Jamie Lee Curtis and The Guardian newspaper, which announced that it would no longer be posting on its official X accounts.
“This is something we have been considering for a while given the often disturbing content promoted or found on the platform, including far-right conspiracy theories and racism,” the newspaper shared in a statement on Wednesday.
“The US presidential election campaign served only to underline what we have considered for a long time: that X is a toxic media platform and that its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse.”
Dozens of celebrities have left X since Mr Musk acquired the platform in 2022, including Elton John, Gigi Hadid, White Stripes lead artist Jack White, and Whoopi Goldberg.
After Mr Musk’s takeover of the platform, he immediately fired the teams tasked with battling misinformation. He subsequently implemented a “general amnesty” to thousands of accounts that had received permanent bans, including neo-Nazis, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, and far-right activist Tommy Robinson. A few months later, he changed the verification system to allow users to pay for a blue verification tick, allowing subscribers to enjoy more visibility, and simultaneously making it harder to verify accounts of genuine public figures.
Mr Musk himself, who is X’s most followed user, has also amplified misinformation to his audience of almost 200 million. In total, Mr Musk has made more than 50 posts viewed 1.2 billion times since the beginning of the year that have been debunked by independent fact checkers, according to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, reported by the Financial Times.
Here are some of the most recent names to declare they are leaving the platform.
Jamie Lee Curtis
The Freaky Friday actress posted a screenshot to her Instagram on Wednesday, showing her X account had been deactivated. Curtis, who had more than 745,000 followers, also shared a prayer alongside the photo of her deleted account.
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. Courage to change the things I can. And the wisdom to know the difference," she wrote.
While she did not specify why she decided to shut down her account, she has been public about her dislike for Mr Trump over the years, and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
Don Lemon
The award-winning CNN news anchor announced his X departure on Instagram and in a statement on X.
"I have loved connecting with all of you on Twitter and then on X for all of these years, but it's time for me to leave the platform," Lemon wrote. "I once believed it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency, and free speech, but I now feel it does not serve that purpose."
Lemon, who had 1.5 million followers on X, also cited the platform’s “new terms of service”, which will come into effect on Friday. The fine print states that “all disputes” on X will now be “brought exclusively in the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas or state courts located in Tarrant County, Texas”.
"As the Washington Post recently reported on X's decision to change the terms, this 'ensures that such lawsuits will be heard in courthouses that are a hub for conservatives, which experts say could make it easier for X to shield itself from litigation and punish critics,'" he continued. "I think that speaks for itself."
He then directed his followers to connect with him on other social media platforms, including X’s competitor, Blue Sky, which was launched by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Bette Midler
American actress and singer Bette Midler’s X account disappeared this week, although the 78-year-old did not leave a parting message to followers.
Included in her final posts on the site was a declaration that Mr Trump is "a downright moron". She also posted a photo on election night of a photo of a bottle of Champagne with a sticky note on it that read "If Kamala wins," and a bottle of Drano drain cleaner with a note that read "If Trump wins”.
Greg Davies
The comedian and Inbetweeners actor announced in a post on Monday that he was also leaving X for good. “Hello all, I’ll be leaving X in the next few days. Thanks for the lovely messages over the years,” he wrote, but didn’t expand on the reasoning behind his departure.
George Monbiot
The left-wing journalist started a thread on X, asking followers whether he should remain on the platform. This week he wrote that he would leave on January 20 – the date of the presidential inauguration.
“To my lovely freinds (sic) and followers here: I hope this will not be goodbye, but just hello in another, and better place,” he wrote, revealing that he has joined BlueSky.
