Following Elon Musk's $44 billion takeover of Twitter, yet another big name has announced their departure from the social media platform.
Just days after becoming the company's new CEO, numerous users announced they would be quitting the site - including Whoopi Goldberg and Ryan Reynolds. Now, heroic airline pilot Captain Sully is joining the list.
The 71-year-old - who rose to prominence following his incredible landing of a plane with two failed engines, thus saving the lives of all 155 people onboard - revealed in a recent tweet: "To my friends on Twitter, I will be taking a step back from the platform for now.
"Connect with me on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram to stay informed and hear my latest personal and professional updates."
His departure comes in the wake of Musk's decision to introduce a host of new features to the social networking app, including the option for users to pay a monthly fee of $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription, which would enable them to purchase the coveted blue checkmark.
This was all to reinforce Musk's desire to remove fake accounts and bots, however, the move to introduce Twitter Blue has completely backfired. Multiple users have paid for the subscription to get the blue tick, before creating fake accounts impersonating big-name brands and tweeting absurd messages.
One user even created a fake account for insulin producer Eli Lilly and subsequently tweeted: "We are excited to announce insulin is free now." While done in jest, the fake tweet caused Eli Lilly's stock to plummet by 4.5% within hours, Mashable reported.
Similar issues occurred with accounts impersonating several other large corporations, including defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin. That fake account tweeted that the company would be halting weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States. What followed was a significant drop in stock prices, which caused a few billion dollars of market capital loss.
Twitter Blue subscriptions have since been halted following the fallout, and many Twitter users can't help but joke about the laughable situation, with one person writing: "The man really bought a site whose users have basically turned every single thing into comic performance art since it launched and demanded that they all take him Super Seriously, what did he think was gonna happen?"
Aside from Captain Sully, other celebrities leaving Twitter have included Whoopi Goldberg, Toni Braxton, and Ryan Reynolds (the latter of whom switched to using Tumblr).
"I'm shocked and appalled at some of the 'free speech' I've seen on this platform since its acquisition. Hate speech under the veil of 'free speech' is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other [people of color]," RnB icon Braxton tweeted.
Supermodel Gigi Hadid also deactivated her Twitter account following mass layoffs at Twitter that included the whole human rights team. "I deactivated my Twitter today. For a long time, but especially with its new leadership, it's becoming more of a cesspool of hate and bigotry, and [it's] not a place I want to be a part of," Hadid wrote on an Instagram story.
With Musk already backtracking on his Twitter Blue subscriptions, many of us are now left wondering how the coming weeks and months will unfold. Though, if mass layoffs and fake accounts are anything to go by, it's definitely not looking good for the platform.
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