Elon Musk’s X abandoned by celebrities, brands and media: Why The Guardian, Whoopi Goldberg and Balenciaga have left

Is this the start of a so-called X-odus?

The Guardian on Thursday announced it was going to stop posting on X, formerly called Twitter, over “long-standing concerns” about far-right conspiracy theories and racist content on the site.

The media outlet said it was taking the stance and was prepared to say goodbye to its 27 million followers, a big call in a tough media landscape.

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Since Elon Musk took over the reins of Twitter in October, 2022, turning it private and rebranding it as X, there has been a growing list of companies parting ways with the platform.

Luxury fashion house Balenciaga quit the site in 2022, while celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Jim Carey have also shut down their accounts.

Whoopi Goldberg is one celebrity to have left the platform. Credit: Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

Many are unhappy with the changes introduced by Musk, which included slashing 6,000 jobs and dramatically reducing the workforce of moderators who oversee content.

A report by Australia’s online safety watchdog the eSafety Commission recently found X engineers focused on trust and safety issues at the company had been reduced from 279 globally to 55, a fall of 80 percent.

“Far right conspiracies”, along with racist and misogynistic content, has reportedly spiked on the platform following the election of Donald Trump.

X is the new hub for the President elect’s true believers. Musk claimed his hands-off approach is essential to freedom of speech.

But that strategy has come at a cost.

The platform’s worth has plummeted since Musk took over. He bought the company for $68b back in 2022, with Investment giant Fidelity, now valuing it at $14b.

It has also shed users with research firm Similarweb finding a significant drop in engagement, with an overall 20 percent drop in active users since 2022.

Still, Musk is showing no signs of shifting tactics.

The day after Donald Trump won the election, Musk posted to his 204 million followers, “You are the media now”.

Donald Trump and Elon Musk. Credit: The Nightly

The decline in users on X comes a year after the eSafety Commission fined X $610,500 in October, 2023 for failing to fully explain how it tackled child sexual exploitation content.

The online safety watchdog issued legal transparency notices in early 2023 to X and other platforms questioning what they were doing to tackle a proliferation of child sexual exploitation, sexual extortion and the livestreaming of child sexual abuse.

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said X and Google had not complied with the notices because both companies had failed to adequately respond to a number of questions.

Musk was the worst offender, providing no answers to some questions including how many staff remained on the trust and safety team that worked on preventing harmful and illegal content since Musk took over, Inman Grant said.

“I think there’s a degree of defiance there,” Inman Grant said.

X Corp, the parent company of X, disputed the fine but the court battle finally came to a close last month when Australia’s Federal Court ruled it must pay the fine and the eSafety Commissioner’s costs.