X Departed horror novel author Stephen King: “Trump is scarier than my novels”
After the presidential election, 110,000 X accounts ‘evaporated’… Blue Sky adds 1 million new subscribers
The exodus of celebrities is continuing as they leave social media platform
According to The Hill, an American political media outlet, Stephen King, a horror novel writer and critic of President-elect Trump, posted on his X account on the 14th (local time) that he was leaving X due to a ‘toxic’ environment.
“I am leaving Twitter (X),” King wrote. “I tried to stay, but the environment here has become too toxic.” He added, “If you want to follow (subscribe) to me in the (Instagram) thread, do so.”
King also denied this was true, saying, “I see a rumor going around that I called Musk Trump’s new first lady.” He also said that Musk never kicked him out of X because of this rumor.
King then claimed that the first Trump administration was scarier than his horror novels.
Previously, in October 2022, King criticized Musk’s decision to charge $20 (about 28,000 won) for authentication maintenance to “You have to pay all the (maintenance) costs,” he said, adding, “How about $8?”
King is not the only celebrity to leave X following Trump’s election. American singer Elton John, actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Mia Farrow, Whoopi Goldberg, and former CNN anchor Don Lemon also left X. The Guardian, a progressive British daily newspaper, also decided not to use the X account.
According to NBC News in the United States, a total of 115,414 X accounts were deactivated on the 6th, the day after the presidential election. This is the largest number of accounts deactivated since Musk became the owner of X.
Kara Wertz, 39, who has used In particular, from the 5th to the 6th, he said, “I started seeing more content related to misogyny,” and couldn’t stand it any longer.
As a result, many people are leaving X and flocking to Blue Sky or Instagram’s ‘Thread’. Blue Sky announced that 1 million new users signed up in the week following the presidential election, bringing the total number of users to 15 million.
Blue Sky is a social networking service launched in 2021 and has been attracting attention as a replacement after Musk acquired Twitter and changed its name to X.
John (45), a Blue Sky user from Minnesota who did not reveal his last name, told the New York Times that the number of subscribers to his Blue Sky account increased by 2,000 after the presidential election. “Over the past week, it’s starting to resemble what I once loved about Twitter,” he said, who created the Blue Sky account last year.
Adam Mosseri, CEO of Instagram, also announced on the 3rd that the number of monthly active users exceeded 275 million.
In this regard, Shannon McGregor, an associate professor who studies the intersection between social media and politics at the University of North Carolina’s Hussman School of Journalism and Media, analyzed to the NYT that people who were disappointed with the results of the presidential election began to associate X with Musk’s support of Trump. He also said people were starting to become dissatisfied with