College officials depart X after Trump win, blame Musk for 'disinformation'

Some college administrators and faculty have decided to quit using X following Donald Trump’s victory in the 2024 presidential election.

Officials from schools around the country have blamed X owner and Trump ally Elon Musk for their departures from the platform, according to Inside Higher Ed.

[RELATED: Elon Musk’s new university plans emphasize ‘merit’ based admissions policies]

”Going off this platform now. It has become a toxic cesspool, is owned by someone I despise, and has become a tool for disinformation,” former Southern New Hampshire University President Paul LeBlanc wrote on Friday before deleting his account.

”Twitter has become a plaything of a plutocrat man-child who relishes in trolling the vulnerable and spreading disinformation,” Trinity College Associate Professor Isaac Kamola explained to Inside Higher Ed. According to the outlet, Kamola considers Musk to be a “dangerous fascist.”

Professors like Kamola, however, intend to keep their account for direct messaging purposes only.

Just days after the presidential election, NYU Professor Jay Rosen announced he would no longer maintain an active X profile.

”Starting Monday I won’t be continuing at this site. Or as ‘press critic online most of the time,’ he wrote to his more than 300,000 followers on Friday. “For a while Twitter was a way to do journalism education in public, for a public— and for free. I think I was effective at times in that role. I no longer know how that’s done.”

Dartmouth Associate Professor Paul Novosad has since come out against academics leaving the platform, warning that they are “going to their own social media bubble,” and that they should instead “Block trump and elon, [and] mute the words ‘trump’ ‘elon’ ‘musk.’”

”I think it is bad for the commons if all the academics disappear and only talk to each other,” he posted on Friday. “We need your good ideas to be shared widely as much we ever did.”

While conservatives have largely celebrated Musk’s ownership of the social media platform as a victory for free speech, various figures in left-wing media circles have warned about the spread of “misinformation” and hate speech from the start.

When Musk officially acquired X, then known as Twitter, in October 2022, the editorial board of the University of Pittsburgh’s student newspaper argued that the billionaire would create an “unsafe environment” for users.

[RELATED: Conservative students feel silenced at UPitt, report finds]

”Bigoted people will feel empowered to abuse Twitter to spread hateful rhetoric with the lack of regulations on Musk’s Twitter,” The Pitt News editorial board wrote on Oct. 31, 2022. “Reinstating Trump and making people pay for verification will take the platform backward instead of forward.”

The board concluded that Musk’s plan would ultimately be “extremely dangerous,” leading to the risk of “further spreading misinformation to the public.”