Elton John Takes Swipe at Twitter in Departure Announcement, Elon Musk Responds
And another one bites the dust.
Sir Elton John has joined the ranks of the thin-skinned celebrities who cannot bear to remain on a social media platform that doesn’t censor users with whose worldviews they disagree.
The Grammy winner made the announcement Friday in the same ironically unaware fashion in which so many of them have: on Twitter.
“All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world,” John wrote on Twitter. Or someone did — John, a publicist, an unpaid intern, whoever.
“I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked,” he added.
All my life I’ve tried to use music to bring people together. Yet it saddens me to see how misinformation is now being used to divide our world.
I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked.
— Elton John (@eltonofficial) December 9, 2022
The responses he received were probably about what you’d expect — although perhaps not what John expected.
One of the more tongue-in-check came from the social media giant’s CEO himself, Elon Musk.
What is this “misinformation” that he refers to?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 9, 2022
Others were more direct.
‘Misinformation’ like this esteemed Doctor’s efforts to have scientific debate surrounding lockdowns?
He’s been proved right.https://t.co/o8nnG90r3i
— Lange (@djlange) December 9, 2022
You mean views you don’t like. Just say that.
— Ryan Petty (@rpetty) December 9, 2022
— Noel Olinde (@TheCajunLibert1) December 9, 2022
Know what saddens me? Artists like you who kept silent these last few years in the face of world wide tyranny. You had a chance to stand against the establishment like a true rock and roller but instead you joined the regime. Shame on you and every other artist who followed suite
— Five Times August (@FiveTimesAugust) December 9, 2022
I’ll toss in two more, one because I simply can’t ignore a “Tombstone” reference when I have the opportunity not to:
— JayNic (@jaynic21) December 9, 2022
And one because it’s probably the best response so far:
Dude, you’ve done like five “farewell” tours already.
You’ll be back.
— Gordon Johnson 🇨🇳 (@HeadSpaceSpace1) December 9, 2022
Gordon Johnson may have a point; while others who have announced their Twitter departures have shut down their accounts, John’s Twitter account has remained active for more than five hours since posting his farewell tweet — and deleting a Twitter account isn’t exactly rocket science.
Especially not for the Rocket Man himself.
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