Canadian psychologist and author Dr Jordan Peterson has announced he’s quitting Twitter after receiving “an endless flood of vicious insults” on the platform. Peterson’s departure comes after he was criticised for a controversial tweet that shamed plus-size model Yumi Nu’s Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover.
On Monday, Peterson explained that he stopped using Twitter three weeks ago and instead instructed his staff to post to his account. However, as he started using the app again, he said his “life got worse again almost instantly.”
“The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else,” he continued his Twitter thread. “I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane.”
He added: “So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and am departing once again. If I have something to say I’ll write an article or make a video. If the issue is not important enough to justify that then perhaps it would be best to just let it go.”
Peterson concluded his sign-off by saying that he plans to “write an article on the technical reasons that Twitter is maddening us all very soon. Bye for now.”
The former University of Toronto professor, who has more than 2.7m followers on Twitter, rose to prominence in 2016 when he began posting lectures online sharing his controversial opinions on masculinity, political correctness, and the gender pay gap.
Peterson received backlash on Monday after he shamed 25-year-old Nu by calling her “not beautiful” after the plus-size model’s cover debut for the 2022 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue.
