Joy Reid has announced she’s leaving X as a wave of Kamala Harris supporters protest Elon Musk’s support for Donald Trump.
The ReidOut star took to TikTok to announce that she was turning her back on the Musk-owned social media platform – despite garnering almost 2million followers.
She proudly showed off stills of the account deactivation process – joining personalities like Don Lemon and Lizzo in doing so.
The latter posted to Instagram to reveal she was heading to Bluesky – a new social media site started by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey.
In contrast to Musk’s X, it was ‘designed to not be controlled by a single company’, organizers said when it was founded back in February. In the week after the election, it gained more than 700,000 new users, the firm has since confirmed.
Amid this mass exodus, publications like The Guardian are also swearing of X, with the far-left paper launching a boycott this week due to ‘disturbing content’ on the platform.
The paper cited instances of ‘far-right conspiracy theories and racism’ – as did Reid late Wednesday.
As for a reason, she offered a lengthy explanation – dramatically declaring how, at the end of the day, ‘it was just not worth it.’
‘Hey guys, today I did something I’ve been meaning to do for a while,’ Reid begins by saying, before panning to two still indicating her X account had been deactivated as melodramatic music plays.
‘And the reason for doing it, and kissing goodbye my 1.9million followers over there,’ she explains, ‘I hadn’t been posting for a long time – I just didn’t want to contribute content once it was purchased by its present owner.’
‘But, just having it there – I was only holding onto it because, I, you know, really didn’t want someone trying to take over that name and use it for nefarious purposes,’ she continues, at this point letting out a laugh.
‘I was a little bit worried about that.’
‘And also, every so often, I was just using it to look at news that was trending, what’s happening, and I just sort of used it as an aggregator,’ she adds, more serious.
‘But I just realized it’s not really worth it.
‘Because in order to do the news aggregation and just look at all, you have to wade through a lot of dreck and a lot of, just, abuse, and a lot of just, negativity.
‘And it’s just not worth it.’
Despite having conveyed her message, the MSNBC star presses on from there, waxing poetic on the subject for a full three minutes.
She complains at one point about ‘the quality of the interactions’ on the website, while insisting at another that ‘the content’ it offers ‘is not helpful.’
Similar sentiments were aired by ousted CNN star Lemon earlier in the day, as he also spook poorly of the website and its owners.
‘I have loved connecting with all of you on Twitter and then on X for all of these years, but it’s time for me to leave the platform,’ the former CNN anchor, 58, in – ironically – an X video.
‘I once believe that it was a place for honest debate and discussion, transparency, and free speech, but I now feel that it does not serve that purpose.’
A few hours later, right around the time Reid aired her intent to leave the platform, Lizzo, 36, took to Instagram to reveal she was headed to Dorsey’s site.
‘I hate the internet,’ the singer told followers in a post that included a selfie. ‘Anyways I joined bluesky cus[sic] we’re leaving toxicity in 2024.’
Since the election, all three stars have relentlessly complained about the result, using all of their socials – and in Reid’s case, MSNBC – as a platform.
On Friday, she shamed Latino men who voted for the president-elect on the air, in what amounted to a condescending rant.
‘While 91 percent of black women voted for [Harris], 53 percent of white women overall voted for Trump,’ Reid began.
‘[This is] despite the open disrespect and demonization hurled by JD Vance and the Supreme Court stripping women’s bodily autonomy, courtesy of Donald Trump.
‘Also, Latino men, who – despite the utter disrespect shown by Trump and his promise to deport some of your mixed-class, mixed-status families – most of them voted in a 55 percent majority to make the deportations happen,’ she continued, mentioning planned policies.
‘You all voted with Stephen Miller and David Duke and against your own sisters who chose [Harris] with 60 percent of their votes.’
Speaking to Latino men who voted Trump directly, she went on to say: ‘You [better] own everything that happens to your mixed-status families and to your wives, sisters and abuelas from here on in.’
The remarks quickly resulted in criticism – with Democrats like New York Rep Ritchie Torres speaking out.
As this was happening, MSNBC’s ratings took a nosedive – plummeting from 6million daily viewers on election Tuesday to just 596,000 last Thursday, new Nielsen numbers show.
That came as commentators like Reid’s coworkers Rachel Maddow and Joe Scarborough continue to discuss the result – often with rants laced with ire toward the conservative, and now Musk as well.
Two years after the Tesla boss slammed Trump as a liar and ‘too old’ to run for president in a widely seen war of words on then-Twitter and Trump’s then-new Truth Social, Musk now has a position in Trump’s administration- at the top of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency.
While just short of the commander-in-chef’s cabinet, it’s clear the two have buried the hatchet.
In recent days, Musk has become a near permanent fixture at Trump’s Mar-a-lago compound – since the ex-president won the 2024 election with considerable campaign help from the businessman.
He has been spotted at Trump’s Florida home regularly since the election after celebrating the win with campaign officials on election night.
The billionaire has been seen on Trump’s golf course and dining with the president-elect.
Trump’s granddaughter even referred to the Musk as ‘uncle’ – in a recent social media post.
Reid, meanwhile, still has accounts on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.