Ever since Elon Musk acquired Twitter, many celebrities have made the decision to leave the social media platform.
Last week, the Tesla founder showed up at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters carrying a kitchen sink as he closed in on his $44bn purchase of the social media platform.
“Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!” the world’s richest person tweeted, along with a video of him in the lobby of the building.
Soon after the news broke, many celebrities revealed their plans to quit Twitter.
“Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” Grey’s Anatomy creator, Shonda Rhimes, wrote.
Grammy-winning singer Sara Bareilles added: “Welp. It’s been fun Twitter. I’m out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me.”
Toni Braxton wrote: “I’m shocked and appalled at some of the ‘free speech’ I’ve seen on this platform since its acquisition.
“Hate speech under the veil of ‘free speech’ is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC.”
The co-creator of Billions, Brian Koppelman, wrote: “Y’all’s, for real, come find me over on instagram and the tok. Gonna really try to take a breather from here for a minute or a month come deal close time.”
Actor Jameela Jamil also quit Twitter, writing: “One good thing about Elon buying twitter is that I will *FINALLY* leave and stop being a complete menace to society on here. So it’s win win for you all really.”
Model Gigi Hadid also disclosed that she has deactivated her Twitter account.
“For a long time, but specially with its new leadership, it’s becoming more and more of cesspool of hate and bigotry, and it’s not a place I want to be a part of,” Hadid wrote on Instagram. “Only sorry to the fans, who I’ve loved connecting with for a decade on Twitter.
“I can’t say it’s a safe space for anyone, nor a social platform that will do more good than harm.”
Stephen Fry has also seemed to quit Twitter.
The actor and presenter reportedly posted a picture of Scrabble letters spelling out “Goodbye” to his 12.5m followers to announce he was leaving.
Apart from the above personalities, retired professional wrestler and actor Mick Foley, director Ken Olin also quit Twitter.
Not long after the takeover, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) also told The Washington Post that use of the N-word on Twitter increased by nearly 500 per cent in 12 hours immediately after Musk’s deal was finalised.
NBA star LeBron James called on Musk to take action on such accounts for using the N-word.
“I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns Twitter,” James wrote.
“But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
Multiple celebrities have also claimed that their Twitter accounts were suspended after they changed their names to Elon Musk and impersonated him.
Musk said Twitter would permanently suspend accounts that impersonated another person if the owner failed to clarify their account was a parody.
So far, Sarah Silverman, Kathy Griffin, and Rich Sommer’s accounts have been suspended on Twitter.
