Add MSNBC anchor Joy Reid to the list of liberal political commentators who have left the social media site X following the presidential election, which Donald Trump won with the help of its billionaire owner, Elon Musk.
“Today I finally did something I’ve been meaning to do for a while,” Reid said in a fiery Instagram video. “The reason for doing it, and kissing goodbye my 1.9 million followers, is because I haven’t been posting for a long time. I just didn’t want to be contributing content once it was purchased by its present owner.”
“Every so often I would use it to just look at news that was trending and what’s happening and I would just use it as an aggregator, but I just realized that’s not really worth it,” Reid adds. “Because in order to do the news aggregation and just look at all, you have to wade through a lot of dreck and just abuse and a lot of negativity, and it’s just not worth it.”
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Reid’s exit from the site follows that of MSNBC colleague Nicolle Wallace and former CNN host Don Lemon.
Lemon had been expected to launch his own show exclusively on X, similar to the deal Fox News host Tucker Carlson cut with Musk, but that deal fell through.
Lemon is now suing Musk, alleging the billionaire Tesla CEO owes him $1.5 million.
Lemon explained that he was motivated to leave by a recent change in X’s terms of service regarding jurisdictions where lawsuits against the site would be heard.
“As the Washington Post recently reported on X’s decision to change terms, this ‘ensures that such lawsuits will be heard in courthouses that are a hub for conservatives, which experts say could make it easier for X to shield itself from litigation and punish critics,’” he wrote in an Instagram post Wednesday. “I think that speaks for itself.”
That change goes into effect Friday.
One X alternative that has seen greater activity in the wake of the election is Bluesky. More than 1.25 million users have created accounts since last Tuesday, making a total of more than 15 million. One of them is Reid’s show, The ReidOut.
