Scores of X (formerly Twitter users) have quit the social media platform in the wake of CEO Elon Musk’s speech at Donald Trump’s inauguration speech on Monday (January 20).
Trump was sworn in as the 47th US President, but it was his leader of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) that attracted the most attention online as he was accused of performing the Sieg Heil salute – a symbol of Nazi Germany.
Musk acquired Twitter in April 2022, and quickly alienated users in a number of ways – most notably scrapping legacy ‘blue ticks’ and allowing anyone the privelege as well as other perks for a fee of around $100 (£81 approx.) per year.
Whilst many users have since departed the platform – many of whom to the strikingly similar BlueSky – others stayed loyal to the established brand as Musk promised to introduce new benefits such as monetisation for content creators. However, following the 53-year old multi-billionaire’s antics in Washington DC, it proved the final straw for some.
One wrote: “I’m leaving Twitter as long as it’s under the ownership of Elon Musk. I refuse to participate in the operation and success of this app… You can find me on BlueSky still if you want.”
A second X user, who shared a video of Musk’s speech, added: “And with that, I’m leaving Twitter. I will be locking this and all other accounts by midnight tonight. I will still be streaming, but I will just be in other places, bye for now!”
A third wrote: “Okay well that’s the final straw for me. I’m leaving Twitter.” And a fourth added: “Elon Musk is a joke. Leaving Twitter forever, bye.”
Meanwhile, British brewery Northern Monk admitted they’d had enough too, penning in a statement: “As a company, we are concerned by some of the discourse on this platform (X). Unity and inclusivity are central to our mission and our values, so we will no longer be using X following this post.”
Others, however, defended Musk – claiming his actions were part of a “genius” ploy to instead drive people towards X. “Musk may have done it just to pump X traffic,” one person noted. Another agreed: “Musk is a genius, it’s increased traffic to X and got people talking about it.”
Meanwhile, a third accused leaving users as “hypocrites”. They wrote: “So to sum up, people are brandishing moral virtue by leaving Twitter because they claim Musk is racist and a supporter of Trump, only to stay on Facebook, where Zuckerberg is now a supporter of Trump, or move to BlueSky, which has fielded accusations of racism,” they said. “Performative hypocrisy at its finest.”
In response to the backlash, Musk took to his own platform to defend himself. He posted on X: “Frankly, they need better dirty tricks. The ‘everyone is Hitler’ attack is sooo tired.”
