Jack White has quit Twitter after Elon Musk re-instated Donald Trump’s account

Jack White has pulled his Third Man Records account from Twitter after Elon Musk re-instated Donald Trump on the social media platform.

• READ MORE: Jack White – ‘Entering Heaven Alive’ review: his richest and most satisfying solo era yet

Last night (November 20), the former White Stripes man posted a lengthy post on his Instagram account slamming Trump’s return as “absolutely disgusting” and “an asshole move”.

He addressed Musk directly, imploring him to “be truthful” and “tell it like it is” – that “people like [him] and Joe Rogan (who gives platforms to liars like Alex Jones etc.)” are financially incentivised to throw their support behind figures spreading hate speech.

White has since pulled his account from Twitter following his tirade.

The former US President was formally banned on January 8, 2021, two days after his supporters violently stormed the US Capitol building. Trump had long been criticised for using Twitter as a platform for extremist far-right views and hate speech; in the wake of his ban, it was reported that misinformation on the platform had ebbed dramatically.

Kanye West also had his account restored on Twitter over the weekend after he was previously locked out following a series of antisemitic posts. However, Musk refused calls for conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to return to the platform.

White is among dozens of stars who hit out at Musk including Kathy Burke, Stephen Fry, The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas, comedy band SpitLip and Trent Reznor.

Musk has been widely criticised for his questionable actions at Twitter, which he officially took over in October.

Twitter itself is rumoured to collapse imminently; over the last few weeks, Musk has laid off thousands of employees, and advertisers have begun fleeing the platform in droves. Within days of Musk’s takeover, too, hate speech on Twitter reportedly spiked – use of the N-word, for example, increased by nearly 500 per cent within 12 hours.

Last week, Musk also allegedly told the remaining Twitter staff that they must “work long hours at high intensity” or leave the company, with rumours of the site’s collapse following soon after. 

The post Jack White has quit Twitter after Elon Musk re-instated Donald Trump’s account appeared first on NME.