Stephen King is ditching X for Threads
A day after putting rumors of his X ban to bed, author Stephen King has announced his official exit from the app formerly known as Twitter.
"I'm leaving Twitter," he posted on Nov. 14. "Tried to stay, but the atmosphere has just become too toxic. Follow me on Threads, if you like."
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The move doesn't come as too much of a surprise if you've been paying attention to the App Store charts. In recent days, X competitors Bluesky and Threads have skyrocketed in popularity, leaving billionaire Elon Musk's app in the dust. For X users, the exodus is a direct response to the U.S. election results and Musk's new role in President-elect Donald Trump incoming administration.
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Earlier this week, Bluesky reported over 700,000 new sign-ups with the app reaching No. 1 on the Apple App Store charts. Over on Threads, King's new home, Meta reports its X alternative has reached 275 million active users. There's no doubt the horror maestro's move to Threads will inspire some of his 7 million followers on X to do the same.
King has been a vocal critic of Musk's since the tech billionaire bought the platform in late 2022, publicly lambasting Musk's decisions and occasionally using his platform for trolling purposes.
So it should come as no surprise that King's first post on Threads is a critical assessment of Trump's "ludicrous" cabinet picks. He writes, "The Klown Kar isn’t absolutely full, but it’s getting there."
Topics Stephen King X/Twitter Elon Musk
Crystal Bell is the Culture Editor at Mashable. She oversees the site's coverage of the creator economy, digital spaces, and internet trends, focusing on how young people engage with others and themselves online. She is particularly interested in how social media platforms shape our online and offline identities.
She was formerly the entertainment director at MTV News, where she helped the brand expand its coverage of extremely online fan culture and K-pop across its platforms. You can find her work in Teen Vogue, PAPER, NYLON, ELLE, Glamour, NME, W, The FADER, and elsewhere on the internet.
She's exceptionally fluent in fandom and will gladly make you a K-pop playlist and/or provide anime recommendations upon request. Crystal lives in New York City with her two black cats, Howl and Sophie.
