Last week, Elon Musk took over as the boss of the social media platform Twitter.
The multi-billionaire hasn’t been shy about making changes, and has already reportedly fired several of the company’s top executives.
However, it looks like all of Musk’s changes and promises aren’t pleasing everybody on Twitter. Many famous faces are fleeing the online platform, announcing that they aren’t willing to stick around and see what the Tesla boss has in store.
Grey’s Anatomy screenwriter Shonda Rhimes bid farewell to Twitter on Saturday (October 29), writing: “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.”
This Is Us producer Ken Olin followed suit, tweeting: “I’m out of here. No judgement.”
“Let’s keep the faith. Let’s protect our democracy. Let’s try to be kinder. Let’s try to save the planet,” Olin added.
Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) October 29, 2022
Bill and Ted star Alex Winter also appeared to ditch Twitter. After wiping his tweet history, the star left behind a Linktree address and a meme depicting Musk, Donald Trump, and Kanye West as the three musketeers, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Other celebs openly debated whether to stay or go. Beauty and the Beast star Josh Gad tweeted: “Large exodus happening on this platform. Not sure if I stay or not. Leaning toward staying, but if today is a sign of things to come, not sure what the point is.”
He continued: “Freedom of speech is great. Hate speech intended to incite harm, (with no consequences) ain’t what I signed up for.”
Large exodus happening on this platform. Not sure if I stay or not. Leaning toward staying, but if today is a sign of things to come, not sure what the point is. Freedom of speech is great. Hate speech intended to incite harm, (with no consequences) ain’t what I signed up for.
— Josh Gad (@joshgad) October 29, 2022
People’s qualms about Musk’s takeover seem to stem largely from his support of blocked Twitter users like controversial rapper West and former POTUS Donald Trump.
West was suspended from the platform earlier this month after making a series of tweets that many deemed antisemitic. Meanwhile, Trump was blocked from tweeting after he allegedly used his social media account to incite the January 6 Capitol riots.
After West’s account was reinstated, Musk took to the platform to insist that it was reactivated after he took control of Twitter.
AlamyBack in May, Musk announced that if his bid to buy Twitter was successful he would “reverse the permanent ban” against Donald Trump’s account.
“Permanent bans should be extremely rare and really reserved for accounts that are bots, or scam, spam accounts… I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump,” Musk said at the time, per CNBC.
“I think that was a mistake, because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk added.
Nevertheless, Trump has insisted that he will not return to Twitter and will instead stay with his own social media platform, TRUTH.