Summary
Stephen King announced his departure from X (formerly Twitter), calling the platform “too toxic” and urging followers to join him on Threads.
King has frequently clashed with X owner Elon Musk over verification charges and political disputes, including Musk’s support for Donald Trump.
Other entities, including The Guardian, German football club St Pauli, and actor Jamie Lee Curtis, have also left the platform, citing concerns over toxic content, misinformation, and hate speech.
Rival platforms like Threads and Bluesky are gaining traction, with Bluesky reporting nearly 15 million users globally.
Better late than never for all of these people, I guess.
Sunk cost fallacy hits people hard.
It’s true. I never deleted my reddit posts and comments because I spent like 13 years with that account. A part of my brain says “don’t delete those, you might need them later.” It’s like a natural hording instinct.
I wish people would have left earlier as well, but it’s not just sunk cost fallacy. Network effects are a rational reason to stay, and that’s the issue. If he has a community, he loses the community. I get it.
That’s why I wish celebrities would coordinate and all leave at once - it’s far more likely their network will follow them in that case, both hurting X more and helping themselves more, and accelerating people leaving as the network effects disappear on X.
The physics metaphor applies pretty directly here: They need to create momentum to counteract inertia.
Yes, I think “network externality” more than “sunk cost”
I think that’s a herding cats issue. Especially when you’re dealing with a bunch of people with big egos. But it would be nice.
Yes, you maybe need a “bandwagon” or some FOMO. Other psychology crap like that.
SAG making a push for union members to leave it would definitely help.
Not a terrible idea. I wonder what Fran Drescher’s position on the election is? I’m betting she’s not a big Elon fan as a union president.
You hear that, @frandrescher? Head over to Bluesky and/or Mastodon and take your minions with you!
Note: I have no idea how to Twitter.
Yeah, for sure. But there’s been trends set off without explicit coordination in the past, especially where there’s an unspoken, unacknowledged pressure built up over time.
I suspect many both celebs and normies are ready to leave, and they’re waiting for an excuse, a signal that they won’t be leaving alone and losing those networks. If Taylor Swift does it, and then some movie star follows, and so on, it can organically cascade.
Big celebrities won’t really be hurt by moving. It’s the small and medium names.
A year ago that might have meant something. Now it’s too late.