Elon Musk complains that celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber rarely use Twitter

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Elon Musk complains that celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber rarely use Twitter
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.Patrick Pleul/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
  • Elon Musk asked Twitter users whether the social-media platform was dying.
  • His comments came after he shared a list of the top 10 most-followed Twitter accounts.
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SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk questioned whether Twitter is losing its popularity.

In a recent tweet, the tech mogul shared the "top 10 most followed Twitter accounts" comprising A-list celebrities and political figures like former US President Barack Obama, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga.

"Most of these 'top' accounts tweet rarely and post very little content," Musk wrote. It prompted him to ask users, "Is Twitter dying?"

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Musk who is an avid Twitter user and tweets almost every day, is also one of the most followed figures on the platform. He ranks 8th on the list and has a following of more than 81 million.

That figure is less than other well-known figures, like Justin Bieber, who has more than 114 million followers, and Taylor Swift who has more than 90 million.

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But Musk was keen to highlight their lack of recent engagement with the platform. "For example, @taylorswift13 hasn't posted anything in 3 months," Musk said. "And @justinbieber only posted once this entire year," he added.

Twitter shares recently skyrocketed almost 25% after Musk revealed he'd bought a big stake in the social-media company. The billionaire investor bought 73,486,938 shares of Twitter stock for a 9.2% stake in the company, a Securities and Exchange Commission filing showed.

Last month, however, Musk criticized the platform after he said Twitter had failed to "adhere to free speech principles." It led him to consider setting up his own social-media platform, Musk told users.

If Musk were to go forward with building his own platform, he would be following in the footsteps of other notable figures. These include former President Donald Trump who launched his platform, Truth Social, in February, and MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who launched Frank Speech, which he describes as his version of YouTube.

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