“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,” wrote Jamie Lee Curtis of her decision to leave the social media site X.
The actress is among several big names to jump ship from Elon Musk’s platform this month, citing a lurch to the right, misinformation and a lack of moderation. “Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic,” said writer Stephen King.
The X-odus or X-it, as it is variously dubbed, saw 60,000 people deactivate their accounts on average each day last week, according to Similarweb, leaving a gap in many workers’ lives. Professions including teachers (#edutwitter) and doctors (#medicaltwitter) have used the site formerly known as Twitter to foster community and exchange ideas. It has provided illuminating commentary on office life and a way for freelancers to promote themselves and network. Now, many are abandoning a career resource and questioning where else they can find the benefits it offered.
Organisations including Balenciaga and The Guardian have also removed themselves. In an editorial, the newspaper stated that the US presidential election underlined what it had long considered: that “X is a toxic media platform and its owner, Elon Musk, has been able to use its influence to shape political discourse”. In response, supporters have decried the exits as tantrums by progressives. X did not respond to request for comment.
From a work perspective, James O’Brien, LBC radio presenter and author, said X had become less productive, with few good faith responses and “sewage prioritised in your feed over people you might actually find interesting”. For those that value “interaction, plurality of opinions and good manners”, he said, “it has become close to intolerable”. He is now posting more frequently on Bluesky, a newer platform that has benefited from a surge in use as people have exited X.
Rhett Butler, chief executive of Mongabay, a non-profit environmental organisation, says he began to see diminishing returns from Twitter in November 2022, a month after Musk bought it. As well as a drop in engagement there were “more negative interactions, accusations of bias and other challenging dynamics” that “made the platform less tolerable for staff managing it”.
LinkedIn has emerged as a favoured alternative. “As a non-profit, we prioritise understanding who consumes our reporting and how they use that information, rather than focusing solely on traffic numbers,” says Butler.
Tatiana Prowell, an oncologist, historically used Twitter to share knowledge about cancer. During the pandemic, she used it to highlight emerging data, helping the “public and my colleagues stay informed”. She co-founded Healthcare Workers vs Hunger (@HCWvsHunger) a friendly competition that raised more than $2.3mn for food banks.
Now she has started to also post on Bluesky. “It feels more like Twitter did several years ago. The exchanges were more productive and the atmosphere was more positive,” Prowell says. But she will remain on X, because she can hear from patients and “people deserve reliable, balanced, understandable science and health information”.
Others with a public duty have reached a different decision. North Wales police force exited Twitter as it was “becoming increasingly difficult to . . . communicate timely, factual and relevant information”, according to Chief Constable Amanda Blakeman. Patrick Hurley, a British member of parliament, believes X now pushes “an agenda at odds with the values of the British people, and to encourage clicks through anger”. He finds Facebook and Nextdoor more useful to reach constituents, Bluesky for opinion formers and peers.
Although they stand to lose large audiences by departing X, some creatives believe they have no choice: it is no longer fit for purpose. “My sense is that the toxic nature of X works against the desire to spread joy through reading,” says Jonny Geller, chief executive of talent agency Curtis Brown Group. Novelist John Niven puts it bluntly: “Its use [for] newsfeeds and book promotion no longer outweighs wading through an ocean of filth.”
Comedy writer Jon Harvey, better known as Count Binface, believes the flood of “unwanted content” has had a material effect on networking and generating ideas. “A lot of what I do is reactive, riffing off what I see in my feed,” he says. “As the algorithm became more pernicious, I was seeing far more tweets from users I didn’t follow.”
But while many have migrated, finding audiences and serendipitous opportunities can be harder on other platforms. Fashion blogger Camille Charrière who has more than 1mn Instagram followers, came off X after the US election, but misses a text-based platform. “On Instagram, I feel like a fashion girl influencer. On [X], I was able to connect with people who didn’t see me like that.”
The opportunity to challenge perspectives is a loss, says Harvey. “As much as Bluesky feels like a fresh start for many people, there is probably a price to be paid if differing sections of society all retreat to their safe space.”