Stephen King has become the latest celebrity to leave X since President-elect Donald Trump’s victory. In a brief farewell message to his seven million followers on Thursday, the King of Horror wrote, “I’m leaving Twitter. Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic. Follow me on Threads, if you like.”
And he was gone.
Earlier this week, rumors that King had been banned him from the platform for mocking Elon Musk’s friendship with Trump were swirling.
On Wednesday, in one of his final posts on X, King sought to quash those rumors. He wrote, “I see there’s a rumor going around that I called the Musk-man Trump’s new first lady. I didn’t, but only because I didn’t think of it. … There’s also a rumor going around that Muskie kicked me off Twitter. Yet here I am.”
He sounds pleasant, doesn’t he?
According to The Daily Mail, “King was referring to recent Musk memes, which were AI generated, and depicted the tech entrepreneur as Trump’s First Lady.” The article notes that the memes began after Musk appeared in a Trump family photo.
The Mail reported that on Wednesday, King posted a photo of his dog with the caption, “Molly, aka the Thing of Evil, considers putting the bite on the Musk-man.” The dog did not appear to be at all threatening but, then again, I once had a golden retriever named Ferosha.
I was not among King’s long list of followers, but apparently he frequently took aim at the “Musk-man” in his posts. Ahead of the election, he warned his followers that most of Musk’s posts “are pro-Trump disinformation and outright lies.”
[Note: The Mail provides screenshots of the aforementioned posts as well as images of the AI generated memes showing Musk dressed as “Trump’s First Lady.”]
Nobody on X seemed bothered by King’s departure. In fact, some users predicted he’ll be back once he realizes he won’t get quite as much attention on Threads as he did on X.
Others pointed out the irony of King finding X to be “too toxic.” He compiled a list of some of King’s greatest hits.
Many made fun of the fact that celebrities feel the need to announce their exit. They don’t realize how little difference their presence, or the lack of it, makes.
And one commenter hopes that Rob Reiner is the next to go.
In case anyone is interested, King had a great first day at Threads. In one post, he said it’s been very “freeing” for him. In another, King wrote, “I quit Twitter. Eleven years, man. It really changed. It grew dark.” Funny that a man who earned his fortune writing horror novels would find X dark.
So Stephen King joined the long line of celebrities and high-profile journalists who have moved on from X since the election.
Once Musk opened up the platform to free speech and it was no longer the liberal echo chamber they had grown accustomed to, they became angry and frustrated. They began calling opinions or even facts they disagreed with “disinformation.” The platform had suddenly become “toxic” and “dark.” Some users began to feel “unsafe.” But Trump’s victory – and Musk’s part in it – proved to be the final straw.
Most have migrated either to Threads, a meta-owned platform, or to Bluesky.
Obviously, no company wants to lose business. But despite the departure of these “big names,” The Wrap reported on Friday that “X has still seen its daily user base increase 5% after the election” (according to Sensor Tower data).
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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