Miami Heat legend Dwyane Wade’s wife Gabrielle Union announced on Friday that she is leaving the social media platform X.
end of an era ✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/DfUxoGz2HX
— Gabrielle Union (@itsgabrielleu) November 15, 2024
X has seen a number of users leave the platform following Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election. The social media service is owned by Elon Musk, a Trump supporter.
Union’s statement was met with several instances of backlash from other notable X users.
https://twitter.com/ValentinaForUSA/status/1857494436017582426
https://twitter.com/TateTheTalisman/status/1857516169529315446
https://twitter.com/DC_Draino/status/1857503735280275772
https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1857505015809937845
NBC News recently provided some perspective on the phenomenon.
“NBC News spoke to six people who have joined or committed to using Threads and Bluesky in place of X after the election because of Musk,” wrote Kat Tenbarge and Kevin Collier. “Each of them cited growing issues on X, including bots, partisan advertisements and harassment, which they all felt reached a tipping point when Donald Trump was elected president last week with Musk’s support. Musk has since joined Trump on calls and in meetings to weigh in on his transition to president.”
Musk’s ownership of X hasn’t always been a smooth ride, and this isn’t the first time that users have left or explored using other platforms instead. After Musk purchased the company, there were times when it didn’t seem certain that X was going to survive, which marked one instance of people exploring alternative platforms.
Overall, the user experience on X hasn’t been universally loved under Musk, who has made many changes to the platform since taking over. Union appears to be one of the latest people to call it quits on the social media service.
Trump’s victory in the election has been celebrated by Musk. The election, headlined by Trump and Kamala Harris, was expected to be very close, but Trump won key swing states en route to victory with 312 electoral votes. Harris finished with 226.
Trump will now serve a second term after he was also in the White House from January 2017 until January 2021. He remains one of the most controversial politicians in U.S. history, which has led to concern from some folks around the country following the election.
The state of X will be worth monitoring to see if the platform is significantly impacted by users leaving. Although X has gone through some rocky periods and may be experiencing another one right now with some folks departing, it’s still standing after all this time.
Meanwhile, anyone looking to stay connected to Union on social media will be able to do so on other platforms.
