Balenciaga Quits Twitter, Potentially Sparking A Massive Brand Exodus
Photo 162812410 © telloimages | Dreamstime.com
In what appears to be an act of silence protest, Balenciaga has abruptly removed its Twitter presence, confirming with Vogue that it has left the platform. The luxury house did not provide a reason for its move, which, frankly, says more than 280 characters can cover.
Balenciaga, which had more than 900,000 followers on this channel, is the first prominent fashion brand to call it quits with the Elon Musk-owned social network, begging the question of whether more companies of its stature will follow suit.
The brand’s timely departure comes right after Musk purchased the microblogging company for US$44 billion and introduced new changes almost immediately. For one, there was the rollout of paid check marks which, although meant as badges for authenticated accounts, embarrassingly backfired and spawned the creation of parody accounts.
One impersonation was so damaging, it reportedly cost Eli Lilly billions in market cap.
Musk also dismissed about half of the Twitter workforce, including its board of directors, claiming to want to restore the app into a “free speech” platform.
In the heat of the controversy, big names including Audi, General Mills, General Motors, Pfizer, and United Airlines have paused advertising on Twitter.
Balenciaga had been pretty active with its advertising efforts on the site. However, those have been withheld too.
On Monday, Whoopi Goldberg announced on The View that she was deleting her Twitter account.
“I’m getting off today because I just feel like it’s so messy… So I’m gonna get out, and if it settles down enough and I feel comfortable, maybe I’ll come back,” Goldberg declared. “But as of tonight, I’m done with Twitter.”
“It’s not a place I want to be a part of,” shared Gigi Hadid, who has also deactivated her Twitter account. The supermodel cited Twitter’s “new leadership” and “cesspool of hate and bigotry” as her reasons for leaving.
“Only sorry to the fans, who I’ve loved connecting with for a decade via Twitter, but I can’t say it’s a safe place for anyone, nor a social platform that will do more good than harm,” Hadid wrote in a statement shared to her Instagram stories.
[via Vogue and PAPER, cover photo 162812410 © telloimages | Dreamstime.com]
