In the midst of his massive farewell tour, Sir Elton John took the time to say another goodbye this morning.
“I’ve decided to no longer use Twitter, given their recent change in policy which will allow misinformation to flourish unchecked,” John wrote on Twitter.
The platform has been at the center of a number of controversies of late, most notably anti-Semitic posts on the platform by Kanye West and Kyrie Irving, which were condemned by the ADL and many others.
Then, less than two weeks ago, Twitter announced it will no longer will enforce a policy to combat misinformation about the Covid pandemic.
“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy,” a note on Twitter’s transparency pages read.
There have also been Musk’s own erroneous and borderline anti-Semitic tweets, which have also drawn wide rebuke.
John, who has long been outspoken in his opposition to hate speech and who for 20 years has sought to end the AIDS epidemic through his Elton John AIDS Foundation, added a personal note.
“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,” he wrote.
Twitter owner Elon Musk was among those who replied to the musician.
“I love your music. Hope you come back,” wrote Musk. “Is there any misinformation in particular that you’re concerned about?”
Other boldfaced names and prominent organizations that have quit posting on the service or left altogether include Whoopi Goldberg, Jim Carrey, Shonda Rhimes, David Simon, Jamela Jamil, Trent Reznor, Gigi Hadid, Toni Braxton, Téa Leoni, Jack White, Liz Phair, Stephen Fry, Alex Winter, Ken Olin and Playbill magazine.
