Balenciaga Leaves Twitter Amid Elon Musk Takeover

The fashion brand quietly removed its official account a few days ago, with the company confirming to Business of Fashion that it had removed its page from the social media platform without elaborating further.

It becomes the first major fashion brand to exit the platform since Elon Musk took over as CEO last month. Balenciaga had well over 900,000 followers at the time of deactivation, with its most recent tweets promoting its new collaboration with Adidas.

While most fashion brands don't rely as much on Twitter compared to platforms like Instagram, the move comes as concerns mount over Musk's handling of Twitter and his vision for the site, which includes an emphasis on free speech and looser moderation of content.

As such, several advertisers like General Motors, Pfizer and United Airlines have exited the platform in recent days amid a rise in misinformation, hate speech and other troubling content under his watch. High-profile celebrities like Gigi Hadid have also left, with the supermodel citing "new leadership" and "a cesspool of hate and bigotry" which she does "not want to be a part of.”

Ads by Balenciaga were also prominent on Twitter in recent weeks, according to tweets and screenshots from users this year. The move comes after the Kering-owned brand announced they would no longer be working with Kanye West following his anti-Semetic comments and hate-driven speech.

Photo via BFA