Elton John quits Twitter

Pop icon Elton John announced on Friday that he would no longer use Twitter, accusing the platform’s new management of allowing misinformation to spread after recent policy changes. The British singer is the latest in a long line of celebrities to leave Twitter since its purchase by Elon Musk.

“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,” John tweeted. “I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.”

Musk himself replied, asking the 75-year-old entertainer “is there any misinformation in particular that you’re concerned about?” Elton John did not respond.

Later in the thread, the Niche Gamer website’s account suggested that John’s tweet was the work of “a newly minted marxist social media person with brain damage.” Musk wrote in response that “most celebrities don’t write their own posts,” adding that “more should,” and it would be “way better to hear directly from them.”

Since purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in October, Musk has fired more than half of the platform’s staff and rolled back some of its censorship policies, while announcing an amnesty for previously-banned accounts, including that of former US president Donald Trump. 

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Liberal critics say that Musk’s actions opened the floodgates for a rise in “hate speech,” with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre accusing him of facilitating a “rising volume of anger, hate and anti-Semitism.” Musk argues that “hate speech impressions,” which measure how many times hateful tweets are viewed, have actually declined over the past month, while Twitter’s user base has grown.

Elton John is far from the first celebrity to publicly announce their departure from Twitter since Musk’s takeover. This exodus of entertainers includes comedian Jim Carrey, TV host Whoopi Goldberg, model Gigi Hadid, and musician Moby, the latter of whom said he was offended by Musk posting “alt-right” memes and images of his guns. Of the above, only Hadid and Goldberg have actually deleted their accounts.