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To anybody still using X: sexual abuse content is the final straw, it's time to leave [View all]
Some wars can’t be won. It can be hard to come to terms with this fact when you’re still on the battlefield, but if somehow you manage to step out for a moment, then the truth will become obvious. You have lost, the people on your side have lost, the villains have won and, if anything, you should have run away a long time ago.
My own sad epiphany about Twitter, now known as X, came in the immediate aftermath of the US election in 2024. I’d spent a lot of that year lying to myself, ignoring the increasing volume of abuse I’d been receiving and the fact that no one ever read my linked pieces any more, but that week I realised I had to stop. I had to leave X for good.
Much of the British political sphere chose to stay put, both that November and in the year that followed. Everyone had their reasons: some felt their reach would be curtailed without it, others wanted to be on all available possible platforms. Some said they relished the intensity of the debates, others didn’t believe other platforms could ever be quite as thrilling or all encompassing.
Most of those justifications were, of course, nonsense. Humans are creatures of habit and ego. If there is an app you have used every day for years, it will be tough for you to quit it, especially if it provided you with both adrenaline and dopamine. If you have a number of followers on that app, and that makes you feel important, it will be hard for you to willingly leave.
I say this not to judge, but in recognition of my own behaviour. There were months and months when I kept lying to myself, pithily saying: “We’re not stuck in here with Elon Musk – he’s stuck in here with us!” when I knew I was just shuffling my feet. Being in Washington DC when Donald Trump won the election was such a shock to the system that I had no choice but to do something drastic. Would I have stayed if I hadn’t been in the thick of it on that one awful night? Maybe. It’s hard to say.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/12/x-sexual-abuse-time-to-leave-elon-musk-grok-imagery-women-children
My own sad epiphany about Twitter, now known as X, came in the immediate aftermath of the US election in 2024. I’d spent a lot of that year lying to myself, ignoring the increasing volume of abuse I’d been receiving and the fact that no one ever read my linked pieces any more, but that week I realised I had to stop. I had to leave X for good.
Much of the British political sphere chose to stay put, both that November and in the year that followed. Everyone had their reasons: some felt their reach would be curtailed without it, others wanted to be on all available possible platforms. Some said they relished the intensity of the debates, others didn’t believe other platforms could ever be quite as thrilling or all encompassing.
Most of those justifications were, of course, nonsense. Humans are creatures of habit and ego. If there is an app you have used every day for years, it will be tough for you to quit it, especially if it provided you with both adrenaline and dopamine. If you have a number of followers on that app, and that makes you feel important, it will be hard for you to willingly leave.
I say this not to judge, but in recognition of my own behaviour. There were months and months when I kept lying to myself, pithily saying: “We’re not stuck in here with Elon Musk – he’s stuck in here with us!” when I knew I was just shuffling my feet. Being in Washington DC when Donald Trump won the election was such a shock to the system that I had no choice but to do something drastic. Would I have stayed if I hadn’t been in the thick of it on that one awful night? Maybe. It’s hard to say.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jan/12/x-sexual-abuse-time-to-leave-elon-musk-grok-imagery-women-children
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