Trent Reznor has deleted his Twitter account after slamming Elon Musk's brief stewardship of the popular social media platform.
The Nine Inch Nails man, who had 1.6 million followers, warned he was about to do so in an interview with Hollywood Reporter, calling billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of the company an "embarrassment."
"I’m about to depart," he said. "We don’t need the arrogance of the billionaire class to feel like they can just come in and solve everything. Even without him involved, I just find that it has become such a toxic environment. For my mental health, I need to tune out. I don’t feel good being there anymore."
Reznor subsequently deleted his account, and visitors to his profile page are now greeted by a generic message that reads, "This account doesn’t exist. Try searching for another."
Reznor quit Twitter twice in 2009, but both absences were short-lived, and in 2010 he expressed uncertainty about social media, telling Pitchfork, "I'm just trying to figure out the right balance between making fans feel good and also maintaining some dignity for myself in the process.
"I think the whole aspect of social networking is vulgar and repulsive in a lot of ways. But I also see why it's appealing – I've had that little high you get from posting stuff online. But then you think, 'Did I need to say that?' I've explored that enough to know to stay kind of quiet these days."
Musk's long-heralded takeover of Twitter has been greeted by a mix of rabid enthusiasm and complete dismay, with former US President Donald Trump the latest public figure to have his ban from the platform overturned. Musk now faces the challenge of allowing freedom of speech and all that entails while simultaneously curating a platform that's "warm and welcoming" to all.
