Jordan Peterson announced that he is quitting Twitter after receiving backlash for calling supermodel Yumi Nu "not beautiful".
It all started when the 59-year-old conservative online personality quote-retweeted The New York Post's tweet about how plus-size supermodel Yumi Nu is one of the debut cover stars of the Sports Illustrated 2022 Swimsuit issue.
Peterson wrote to his 2.7 million followers: "Sorry. Not beautiful. And no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that."
The tweet gained more than 10,000 quote-retweets with users questioning his choice of words.
The psychologist and author's tweet also prompted a reply from the 25-year-old model herself, saying "H**s mad," which amassed over 96.6K likes.
The Canadian professor has more than 5 million YouTube subscribers and is known for his conservative viewpoints. After posting his contentious tweet, he fired back at "panderers".
He insisted that the decision to feature a plus-size woman on the cover of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit was "a conscious and cynical manipulation by the oh-so virtuous politically correct".
Just hours after posting his controversial analysis of the model, he sent out a series of tweets detailing his reason for leaving the app, attributing it to negative comments from users that replied to his tweets.
In a tweet sent out on May 17, he wrote: "I recently stopped accessing Twitter for three weeks as an experiment. I had some of my staff post video links etc. It was a genuine relief. I started to read & write more. I started using it again, a few days ago, and I would say that my life got worse again almost instantly."
He continued: "The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else. I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane."
Peterson then concluded, saying: "So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and am departing once again. If I have something to say I'll write an article or make a video. If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go."
The irony of Peterson complaining about insults after needlessly insulting Nu first was not lost on the audience. Online users were quick to remind the relentless advocate of free speech that he was contradicting himself.
However, Peterson's Twitter account has been active since announcing that he was leaving the social media platform, with several tweets posted.