Elton John is the most recent celebrity to make the decision to leave Twitter following the platform’s acquisition by Elon Musk. The British singer joins Gigi Hadid, Jim Carey, Shonda Rhimes, Toni Braxton, comic book creator Eric Larsen, Téa Leoni and Whoopi Goldberg who all closed their Twitter accounts last November.
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In his latest Tweet posted today, the 75-year-old singer announced he will no longer be using the site as the tech billionaire has policies in place that will allow “misinformation to thrive unchecked”.
“All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world,” he tweeted.
“I have decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent policy change which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.”
Musk recently revealed he was granting a “blanket amnesty” for suspended accounts, which many experts believe will lead to an increase in hate, harassment and conspiracy theories. Donald Trump’s previously suspended account has been reinstated.
Musk also suspended – for a second time – rapper Kanye West’s account recently after he tweeted an anti-Semitic image.
Whoopi Goldberg announced her departure from Twitter on her show The View last November. She said, “I’m going to leave and if it calms down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back.”
The producer and creator of numerous TV series including Grey’s Anatomy tweeted on October 29: “I won’t hang around here to see what Elon Musk has planned. Goodbye!” she wrote.
Singer Tony Braxton had also published a long tweet to her 2 million subscribers in which she said she was shocked and appalled by certain “freedoms of expression” she had seen on Twitter since her acquisition.
“Hate speech under the veil of ‘freedom of expression’ is unacceptable; therefore, I choose to stay off of Twitter, as it is no longer a safe space for me, my sons and other POC (*people of color).”
Model Gigi Hadid also deactivated her Twitter account last November. She had explained her decision on her Instagram account by specifying that Twitter was becoming more and more “filled with hatred and bigotry”. “I can’t say it’s a safe place for anyone or a social platform that will do more good than harm.”
Finally, American singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles tweeted to her 3 million Twitter followers “It’s been fun Twitter. Sorry, this one just isn’t for me.”