Numerous celebrities have already abandoned the social networking site since Elon Musk bought Twitter.
The 51-year-old owner of the world’s wealth visited Twitter’s San Francisco offices this week lugging a kitchen sink as he neared the completion of his $44 billion acquisition of the social network.
Along with a video of him moving through the Twitter building’s hallway, the founder of Tesla tweeted, “entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”
After months of rumours that Musk would buy the site were finally proven, a number of famous people and actors announced that they would be deactivating their Twitter accounts.
Shonda Rhimes, the creator of the TV series, and other prominent figures from the industry have declared their intention to leave the platform now that it is controlled by the SpaceX founder, who has promised to make significant changes, possibly including lifting the ban on the former president Donald Trump.
“not waiting around to see what Elon has in store. Bye,” Rhimes tweeted to her fans on Twitter. Two days after Musk announced his agreement, on Saturday, October 29.
In a tweet to his 290,000 followers, executive producer of the NBC programme This Is Us, Ken Olin announced that he was “out of here” and made a request for peace and kindness.
The actor and former professional wrestler Mick Foley announced on his Facebook page that he is taking a “vacation” from Twitter because of the “new ownership” and the “hatred and disinformation it seems to be encouraging.”
“I really do enjoy connecting with all of you on social media, but it can get overwhelming sometimes. I think I’ll be back on in a few weeks, but in the meantime, I will continue to post on Facebook and Instagram,” Foley wrote.
“I hope all of you will be kind to one another,” he said, adding, “Please vote if you can too – our democracy seems to be hanging on by a thread.”
The use of the “n-word” on the app climbed by roughly 500% over the course of the next 12 hours, the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), a group that analyses messages on social media, claimed in a report by the Washington Post.
NBA star LeBron James also took to Twitter to ask the new CEO to take action against pages using racial slurs such as the n-word, writing: “I don’t know Elon Musk and, tbh, I could care less who owns Twitter.”
“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,” he added.
“Free speech is the backbone of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where things crucial to the future of humanity are argued,” Musk had previously stated in his formal statement announcing the historic acquisition.
He later corrected his remarks on “free expression” and said that rather than permanently banning users, a temporary suspension would be sufficient if they tweeted something that was “illegal or otherwise damaging to the globe.” Additionally, he stated that the post ought to be made invisible.
Featured image credit: Apex MediaWire / Alamy
