IS TWITTER FACING A CELEB EXODUS?

A POPULAR joke on Twitter proclaims you no longer want to be on the platform because the discourse it fosters can feel so toxic – while you remain on it anyway.

Chrissy Teigen went a step further and has deleted her account.

“Hey. For over 10 years, you guys have been my world. I honestly owe so much to this world we have created here. I truly consider so many of you my actual friends,” Teigen posted. “But it’s time for me to say goodbye. This no longer serves me as positively as it serves me negatively, and I think that’s the right time to call something.

“My life goal is to make people happy. The pain I feel when I don’t is too much for me. I’ve always been portrayed as the strong clapback girl but I’m just not.

“My desire to be liked and fear of p ****** people off has made me somebody you didn’t sign up for, and a different human than I started out here as! Live well, tweeters. Please know all I ever cared about was you!!!” Soon after, her account was gone.

The model and cookbook author had 13.7 million followers – and another 34.4 million on Instagram, where she remains. She shared cooking projects, humorous jabs at her critics and behindthe-scenes looks at her marriage with singer John Legend.

Her prominence grew as she traded insults with Donald Trump on the platform. Trump blocked Teigen during his first year as president but still tweeted about her, calling her “boring” John Legend’s “filthy mouthed wife”. In response, she tweeted three expletives.

Her departure from Twitter came on the

heels of her announcing her partnership with Kris Jenner to create a line of plantbased cleaning products, which drew fervent backlash. This “seems pretty tone deaf. Two wealthy women with housekeeping staff, marketing cleaning products to the middle class in the midst of a pandemic”, a critic said in a now-deleted tweet.

“I really don’t wake up every day trying to make you mad but somehow I manage. and u say I have no talent. that’s something I guess,” Teigen tweeted in response to the wave of criticism, pointedly calling the backlash “mean” at one point and adding, “I’ll never get over it.”

Teigen has long spoken out about the harrying she receives on the platform. “The comments affect me,” she told the show in February.

Football legend Thierry Henry has been vocal about social media companies needing to do more to tackle racism and abuse levelled at social media users, famous or not.

Last week he said he was deleting his Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts.

“It’s not a safe place,” Henry, 43, told CNN Sport. “I wanted to take a stand on saying it is an important tool that unfortunately some people turn into a weapon because they hide behind a fake account.

“There is a lot of awareness, a lot of campaigns, but it’s still happening so now I want to see the people in charge, the big guns, come out and explain.

“I’ve had enough of talking and hearing, I want to see action,” he added. “I want to see how we can eradicate that and how we can move on from it.”

While Grammy-winning musician Lizzo’s Twitter account is still active, the tweets are all sent by her management.

Today

She announced her exit from the social network in January last year. Her reason? The bullying she faced on the app every day.

The Twitter brass have long been criticised for failing to adequately combat harassment, and Teigen’s departure has reignited conversation.

“Chrissy Teigen quitting Twitter is a really, really bad reflection on the company’s ability to fight abuse. She wasn’t just some famous person. She was a power user, and a fan favourite internally (she spoke at Twitter’s company-wide retreat in early 2020). This one will sting,” tweeted Bloomberg reporter Kurt Wagner.

Tech Crunch’s Drew Olanoff agreed, tweeting, “it’s also a very real sign that using the internet like this (Twitter, Facebook, etc) a) has a shelf life and b) has real consequences c) takes a toll d) is in essence, a drug.”

Will this start an exodus? It’s possible. However, it could be better to follow Lil Nas X’s model, where he gives his detractors just as much as he takes from them. |

FORMER footballer Thierry Henry, left, and Lizzo have spoken out against the bullying which they say is so prevalent on Twitter.

Reuters | LE BASKOW