Stephen King is not only one of the most successful authors in the world – he is also one of the most popular social media personalities. Elon Musk has more than 7 million followers on X alone. Now, however, King seems to have… loathed the platform: “I’m leaving Twitter. I tried to stay, but the atmosphere has now become too toxic.”

In addition to King, there are other celebrities who turn their backs on X, such as actress Jamie Lee Curtis, Jim Carrey, musician Moby and famous journalist Don Lemon.

Jamie Lee Curtis posted a screenshot of her X account deletion on Instagram, writing below: “God, give me the strength to be able to accept the things I can’t change. The courage to change what I can. And the wisdom to be able to perceive the difference”. And while many outlets on the left of the political spectrum continue to post on the platform, Britain’s Guardian newspaper has also pulled out of X.

A phenomenon that is also observed in Germany

The same phenomenon is observed in Germany. From football teams Werder Bremen and St. Pauli to Berlinale and supermarket chain Aldi Nord, more and more companies are deciding to delete their pages on the platform. Aldi Nord even took this decision when X refused to take action against some users who wrote racist comments about the models that appeared in some of the supermarket chain’s publications. Hamburg’s Kiez-Club, which had been active on the platform since 2013 and had around 250,000 followers, also decided to leave X, specifically stating that on the platform “racism and conspiracy theories spread unhindered or are even strengthened, while the insults and threats are not punished and are presented as supposed freedom of expression”.

Social media consultant Martin Fuchs observes that since Elon Musk bought the platform, the erstwhile Twitter has been losing more and more of its prestige in Germany. Important NGOs, politicians and journalists are also leaving the platform – although X is still the most important space for dialogue on political developments in Germany, according to Fuchs. This is also the reason why the SPD and Robert Habeck of the Greens decided to return to X.

How big is the problem for X?

Simon Hurtz, an expert at Social Media Watchblog, emphasizes that no one could estimate in advance with certainty how massive the exodus of users from X will be in the end. “However, what is certain is that the larger the account that is deleted, the louder the message.”

Many may take as a model politicians, celebrities or organizations that decide to leave the platform. However, it is unknown how X will evolve in the future – as well as which platform will gather the majority of disgruntled users.

Biggest winner is Bluesky

Stephen King has opened an account on Threads, Meta’s alternative platform, which currently has around 300 million users – and Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg naturally wants to jump on the bandwagon. Still others prefer the non-commercial Mastodon platform. But the biggest winner so far is startup Bluesky – where Jamie Lee Curtos, Werder Bremen and Jean-Claude Pauli went.

Bluesky has around 20 million users. Compared to X and Threads the platform is thus smaller, but growing rapidly – ​​in September Bluesky had just 10 million users. A week after the US election, Bluesky was named the App Store’s best free app for the US, while in Germany it is in second place in the social media category – behind Threads, but ahead of Telegram, WhatsApp, Facebook, Discord and Signal. Of course, the acquisition of Twitter by Musk also played a role in the massive influx of users to Bluesky.

The internet is changing

However, regardless of the criticism leveled at Musk for political reasons – such as his alliance with Donald Trump – the X must change anyway if it is to remain relevant. “The internet has turned the page, video has replaced text,” says Hurts the expert. “An instant messaging and opinion service is never going to have the political and social importance that Twitter had ten years ago.”

According to Hurts, the various communities are now scattered across more different platforms. “It is too early to say which network will be the right platform for each topic. In Bluesky there is an exchange of ideas on matters of German politics, although for now there is a distinctly left-liberal undertone.”

This leads to considerably more civilized discussions, but could alienate more conservative politicians. “It remains to be seen how wide the diversity of opinion will ultimately be on the platform.”

Edited by: Giorgos Passas