This past week, it was announced that Elon Musk officially completed his deal to buy the social media platform Twitter. With this deal of $44 billion, Musk has taken charge of the platform and fired some of its executives. One of them was now-former CEO, Parag Agrawal. Many Twitter users have had negative feelings about this new era, especially celebrities.
Many celebrities have tweeted their take on Musk’s acquisition of Twitter and announced their departure from the platform. Singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles stated she was departing on Oct. 30. She tweeted, “Welp. It’s been fun Twitter. I’m out. See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me.” TV producer and writer Shonda Rhimes did the same on Oct. 29, tweeting, “Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye.” Director and actor Ken Olin’s last tweet was, “Hey all – 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. Let’s try to be more generous. Let’s look to find peace in the world.”
Celebrities continue to be added to the Twitter departure list, including singer Toni Braxton, comic book creator Erik Larsen and retired wrestler Mick Foley. Some have expressed their discomfort with the rising levels of hate throughout Twitter since Musk’s takeover, while others have simply stated that the takeover means it is their time to leave. Many wonder whether more celebrities will join them and if it will affect Twitter as a whole.
To go into more detail on the Musk-Twitter deal, Musk originally agreed to buy the platform in April of this year but became concerned about bots and allegations that were made against it. He tried to back away from the deal in response. This led to a period of unanswered questions and a lawsuit from Twitter. Now that Musk has officially made his decision and bought Twitter, he does not have to face a trial with the company. Musk is currently focusing on turning the platform into a place where free speech is less affected by content moderators and may soon allow users who have been permanently banned in the past to have their ban status revoked. One of these users is former President Donald Trump, whom Musk has said he would unban.
Musk also mentioned a plan to increase Twitter’s annual revenue to $26.4 billion. Stating this in May of this year, he said he would make the increase happen by 2028. As of today, it has been revealed that this plan involves firing half of Twitter’s employees and charging Twitter users a monthly fee if they want verification. At first, the proposed monthly verification fee was $20. This sparked anger amongst users, including best-selling horror author Stephen King. King tweeted, “$20 a month to keep my blue check? F*** that, they should pay me. If that gets instituted, I’m gone like Enron.” Musk then responded by changing the fee to $8.
Elon Musk has had a difficult time acquiring Twitter. He has dealt with tough decisions, backlash, lawsuits and more. This long-running journey between him and the platform is leaving users from around the world in anticipation of what will come next. Musk has a variety of options and possible paths that he has proposed, which brings great uncertainty as to what the future of Twitter looks like.
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