It could not have been a handover without controversy. Since Elon Musk bought Twitter for 44 billion dollars, the tweets to communicate his abandonment from the social network have increased exponentially. According to an article by MIT Technology Reviewthe online magazine ofmassachussets Institute of TechnologyMore than 1 million accounts have left the app since October 27, when Musk took over as new owner on the platform. Bot Sentinel, which monitors the activities of more than 3 million accounts daily, saw more than 870,000 accounts deactivated between the day of purchase and Nov. 1. 497,000, however, were suspended.
The founder of Bot SentinelChristopher Bouzy, cited the purchase by the tycoon native of South Africa and, in particular, due to thehate speech. According to a study by Network Contagion Research Institute, in the following 12 hours the word «nigger» saw a 500% increase on the platform. In this context, many celebrities of the blue bird, or very popular public figures, have left Twitter. Others, on the other hand, have seen the light on the most discussed social network in recent years.
The readmitted
Little to do: Donald Trump will not return to Twitter despite Elon Musk conducting a poll to decide his readmission. The favorable vote, unlike the 2020 elections, rewarded the former president of the United States who, if he wishes, will be able to use the social network as a megaphone for the next electoral campaign. Vox Populi, vox dei Musk wrote once the poll expired. As known, the account of the Mar-A-Lago tenant had been suspended for his incitements to violence which led to the assault on the American Congress. His last chirp had been this: “The 75,000,000 great American patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!”
9 hours ago it was also the turn of Kanye West, known today as Ye. West had been suspended for an anti-Semitic rant about Jews, explaining how he would go on the attack. On the night of November 21, his account came back to life. A test tweet, like singers do with the microphone. In his response also Musk, who published a play on words between «ye» and «you»: «Don’t kill what ye hate, save what ye love» («Don’t kill what you hate, save what you love») . The second message, which has just been re-entered into the platform, is instead a «Shalom», a Hebrew word that has multiple meanings, but which some users have seen as not having learned from their mistakes.
Other profiles that Musk has readmitted to his platform are somewhat questionable. An example is Andrew Tate, a British influencer and former kickboxer, who was removed from the platform in 2017 for arguing that even women “should be held responsible when they suffer sexual violence”. Also controversial is the return to Twitter by Jordan Peterson, a Canadian psychologist, who in 2018 had repeatedly called the transgender actor Elliot Page, with his dead name. After being banned, he recorded a 15-minute YouTube video in which he claimed he would prefer “death to deleting the tweet.”
The exoduses
The list of social celebrities who have left, with the beginning of the Musk management, continues to grow. So much so that some users joke that “I’m leaving Twitter” is the new “I’m leaving Canada”. Among the most important names who have decided to abandon it is Philipp Schiller, vice president of Apple, who has deleted his account. Others, on the other hand, have chosen to keep their profile open but stop posting.
This is the case of Shonda Rhimes, creator of the dream series by Fox, and who wrote on her profile: «I won’t be on Twitter to wait to see what Elon has in mind. Greetings”. Of the usual idea was the actress Toni Braxton. The singer’s explanation is more detailed than that of Rimes: “I am shocked and appalled by the ‘freedom of speech’ I have seen on this platform since the acquisition of Musk. The hate speech under the veil of ‘freedom of word” is unacceptable; so I choose to stay off Twitter because it is no longer a safe space for me and my children”.
Other cases concern the model Gigi Hadid who motivated her abandonment with a post on Instagram, while Whoopi Goldberg, in a television program, said: “I’m done with Twitter, maybe if one day it settles down I’ll come back”.