Days into Elon Musk’s ownership of Twitter, many of Hollywood’s biggest names are leaving the platform.
Television mogul Shonda Rhimes announced she’s ditching the platform just two days after Musk’s takeover.
“Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned. Bye,” tweeted Shonda Rhimes on Oct. 29, just two days after Musk’s takeover.
She joined Twitter in November 2008 and leaves behind 1.9 million followers.
“Welp. It’s been fun Twitter. I’m out,” singer Sara Bareilles wrote. “See you on other platforms, peeps. Sorry, this one’s just not for me.”
The Grammy award-winning artist joined Twitter in May of 2007 and leaves behind 2.8 million followers.
Actor Josh Gad tweeted to him over 675,000 followers that he’s contemplating leaving the site.
“Large exodus happening on this platform. Not sure if I stay or not. Leaning toward staying, but if today is a sign of things to come, not sure what the point is,” he tweeted on Oct. 28. “Freedom of speech is great. Hate speech intended to incite harm, (with no consequences) ain’t what I signed up for.”
“This is Us” executive producer Ken Olin, tweeted, “I’m out of here. No judgment. 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.”
Days before Musk purchased the social media giant, Olin had tweeted to his 293,700 followers. “The day Elon Musk takes ownership of Twitter I’m out. Not that that means much. But I just wanted to declare.”
Olin joined the platform in July 2010.
Meanwhile, actor and filmmaker Rob Reiner used Musk’s ownership to encourage people to get out and vote.
“For those who are fighting to preserve our Constitutional Democracy, now is not the time to leave Twitter. Now is the time to VOTE BLUE!” he tweeted.
According to the Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI), which calls itself a “neutral and independent organization whose mission is to identify and forecast cyber-social threats and report on them in a timely fashion,” found that the use of the N-word on Twitter increased by nearly 500% in the 12 hours immediately after Musk’s deal was finalized.
Lebron James weighed in on the findings tweeting to his 52.3 million followers “I don’t know Elon Musk and, I could care less who owns Twitter. But I will say that if this is true, I hope he and his people take this very seriously because this is scary AF. So many damn unfit people saying hate speech is free speech.”
Following Musk’s deal, he tweeted that he has “not yet made any changes to Twitter’s content moderation policies.”
“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” he stated on the site. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
