Madison Meeks – Opinion Editor

mvm7037@psu.edu

Photo Credit: Twitter

Celebrities are deactivating their Twitter accounts due to Elon Musk buying the platform. After months of meetings, failed deals, and lawsuits, Tesla founder and multi-billionaire Elon Musk acquired the platform for 44 billion dollars on October 27.

Shortly after the acquisition, celebrities from various circles began fleeing Twitter after the new owner decided to give all users the ability to have the blue verified check mark for a small monthly fee.

According to Vulture.com, “thanks to Elon Musk’s continued efforts to command the platform — which have included charging users $8 to [in his own words] ‘trash’ him, laying off about half the company’s 7,500 employees, recommending that people vote Republican, and suspending Kathy Griffin for ‘impersonating’ him.”

Celebrities have gone past just deactivating their Twitter accounts in protest of Musk. The View host Whoopi Goldberg has stated that she is “done with Twitter. I’m going to get out, and if it settles down and I feel more comfortable, maybe I’ll come back” while hosting an episode of The View.

Goldberg is just one of many celebrities that is “done” with Twitter. Shonda Rhimes, the creator of popular shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Scandal”, has not only deactivated her account but deleted it. 

Singer Sarah Bareilles stated “Welp. It’s been fun Twitter. I’m out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me” when she announced that she is leaving Twitter.

Erik Larson, creator and artist behind “The Amazing Spider-Man” said in April that “the day Elon Musk buys Twitter is the day I delete my account and leave Twitter.” He confirmed that he left the social media platform in an email to NBC News.

As you can tell, celebrities are not happy with the fact that Elon Musk now owns Twitter. As swarms of verified celebrities and users leave the platform in protest over Elon Musk’s acquisition, many wonder how the once massive social media platform will be able to bounce back from this. 

Will this spell the death of Twitter? We will just have to wait and see.