Yahoo Lifestyle 16 Celebs Who Left Social Media Because Of Some Very Public Drama, Toxic Fans, Or For The Sake Of Their Own Mental Health
One entry includes topics of suicide ideation.
1.Chlöe Bailey recently deleted her Twitter account when she received hateful comments after appearing in an onscreen sex scene in the series Swarm.
She also clarified that when we do see her tweeting, she'll have her team post for her so she doesn't have to spend time on the app.
"I love all social media, and I love Twitter as well, but that's where you can see all the negative things about you directly in your face," she told ET Canada. "If I see my name trending, I'd click it and see a whole plethora of negative tweets about myself. I don't need to do that to myself. I feel that when you continue to be fed the same thing, you'll start to believe it. And I started changing myself based off what I thought people's opinions were of me. And that's not okay."
2.Elizabeth Olsen abruptly deleted her Instagram account back during the summer of 2020, and the rumor was because commenters bullied her for not posting a tribute to MCU costar Chadwick Boseman after his death.
However, she later clarified that she deleted the account because she felt like she was "trying to create a character version of [herself] and put it out in the world." She also said that she'll never go back on social media.
"It's not even like I was really paying attention to comments or anything," she told Glamour UK. "I just felt weird how it organized my brain. Like, if something happened in the world, I was like, 'Oh, do I have to post about this?'" She also explained that she hated living in the "narcissistic cycle" of thinking "I'm an entitled person whose voice must be heard on this issue."
"It’s important for people who want to be voices and have platforms and who care deeply about issues. But I am terrified of that pressure," she said.
3.Selena Gomez is famously known to take breaks from social media for her mental health and recently stepped away from her accounts amidst a rumored feud with Hailey Bieber.
In the past, she's opened up about just why social media has been such a strain on her mental health. “People can call me ugly or stupid, and I’m like, Whatever. But these people get detailed," she said to Vanity Fair. "They write paragraphs that are so specific and mean. I would constantly be crying. I constantly had anxiety. … I couldn’t do it anymore. It was a waste of my time."
Selena Gomez announces on TikTok live that she’s taking a break from social media:“I’m gonna be taking a second from social media cause this is a little silly and I’m 30. I’m too old for this.” pic.twitter.com/rJ7WvjOPEA
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) February 23, 2023
She added, “The only thing I have on my phone is TikTok because I find it to be a little less hostile. There are wonderful things about social media — connecting with fans, seeing how happy and excited they are and their stories. But usually, that’s filtered through [for me now]. I created a system. Everything I do I send to my assistant who posts them. As far as comments, my team will put together a few things that are encouraging.”
4.Pete Davidson deleted his Instagram account after receiving a huge amount of negative comments from fans angry about his relationship and split from Ariana Grande.
"No there's nothing wrong," he wrote before deleting his IG profile. "No nothing happened. No there's nothing cryptic about anything. I just don't wanna be on Instagram anymore. Or on any social media platform. The internet is an evil place and it doesn't make me feel good."
5.In 2018, Kelly Marie Tran, the first woman of color to play a lead role in a Star Wars movie, deleted all the photos on her Instagram after being harassed by racist fans of the franchise.
“It wasn’t their words, it’s that I started to believe them,” she wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “Their words seemed to confirm what growing up as a woman and a person of color already taught me: that I belonged in margins and spaces, valid only as a minor character in their lives and stories.”
“I want to live in a world where children of color don’t spend their entire adolescence wishing to be white,” she added. “I want to live in a world where women are not subjected to scrutiny for their appearance, or their actions, or their general existence. I want to live in a world where people of all races, religions, socioeconomic classes, sexual orientations, gender identities, and abilities are seen as what they have always been: human beings.”
Star Wars costar John Boyega even weighed in on the hate Kelly received.
6.Millie Bobby Brown deleted her Twitter account back in 2018 after she was targeted with an anti-gay meme.
She later created the handle @Milliestopshate as a means to help stop spreading hate, but that account hasn't been active since 2019.
Millie also recently shared that she deleted her TikTok account after being bombarded with angry messages, threats, and inappropriate messages from older men.
7.Cardi B deleted her Instagram account for a week after a very public feud with rapper Azealia Banks.
Azealia accused Cardi of being a "caricature of a Black woman," while Cardi fought back and defended herself saying, "I'm from the hood. I speak how I speak, I am how I am. I did not choose to be famous, people chose me... I never asked to be an example or a role model..." She then put her Twitter account on private and deleted her Instagram.
I’m tired of the bullshit .I need to enjoy my pregnancy,family ,new projects and my partner .Listen to Invasion of privacy .
— Cardi B (@iamcardib) May 12, 2018
Both accounts have been made public again.
8.Daisy Ridley deleted her Instagram account after users harassed her for posting about gun control and paying tribute to those who've been lost to gun violence.
In her post, she wrote, “As I sat in the audience yesterday, tears were streaming down my face at the tribute to those that have been lost to gun violence. I didn’t get a great picture of the incredible group that came onstage, but they were so brave. It was a true moment of togetherness. We must #stoptheviolence.”
Several users criticized her "hypocrisy" because of the violence that occurs in the Star Wars movies.
When talking to Glamour about her social media, she said, "It's not good for me, personally. I'm just not equipped for it. I'm super sensitive — not too sensitive — but I really feel things."
9.In 2016, Justin Bieber threatened to make his Instagram account private shortly after commenters left hateful messages about his then-girlfriend Sofia Richie. He even wrote, “I’m gonna make my Instagram private if you guys don’t stop the hate. This is getting out of hand, if you guys are really fans, you wouldn’t be so mean to people that I like.”
However, instead of making the account private, he deleted it altogether. A few months later during his concert, he even said, “Instagram is for the devil. I think hell is Instagram. I’m, like, 90% sure.”
10.Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave up Facebook and shared that she limits her time on Instagram and Twitter.
"I personally gave up Facebook, which was kind of a big deal because I started my campaign on Facebook, and Facebook was my primary digital organizing tool for a very long time," Ocasio-Cortez said on the Skullduggery podcast. "I gave up on it. We still sort of have accounts on it."
Part of her reason for leaving was the impact these sites have on users' wellbeing, and she said, "Social media poses a public health risk to everybody."
She also added that these sites can make users more susceptible to depression, anxiety, and addiction.
11.Leslie Jones briefly left Twitter after she was bombarded with racist comments and slurs from users who disliked the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot.
Leslie herself responded to many of the attacks on her Twitter account as well.
On Twitter, she said, "I don’t know how to feel. I’m numb. Actually numb. I see the words and pics and videos. Videos y’all. Meaning people took time to spew hate,” she continued. “I used to wonder why some celebs don’t have Twitter accts, now I know. You can’t be nice and communicate with fans 'cause people crazy."
I'm more human and real than you fucking think.I work my ass off. I'm not different than any of you who has a dream to do what they love.
— Leslie Jones 🦋 (@Lesdoggg) July 19, 2016
Fellow celebs like Judd Apatow, Loni Love, and Ghostbusters director Paul Feig came to Leslie's defense, too.
12.Lizzo took a brief break from Twitter in 2020 because she felt the site had "too many trolls."
"Yeah I can’t do this Twitter shit no more... too many trolls... ✌🏾 I’ll be back when I feel like it," she tweeted.
She ended up rejoining the app again during the summer of 2021, just around the same time her single with Cardi B, "Rumors," came out. But her account is currently locked on private.
13.Iggy Azalea briefly quit Twitter when users body shamed her for "having cellulite."
In a now-deleted tweet, she said, "Just got back from a great vacation, came online and saw apparently it's shocking and unheard of to be a woman and have cellulite."
14.Tom Holland announced he was taking a social media break because he found it to be "overstimulating" and "overwhelming."
“I get caught up, and I spiral when I read things about me online, and ultimately, it’s very detrimental to my mental state. So, I decided to take a step back and delete the app," he said in a video posted to his grid before leaving the site.
15.Gabby Douglas announced her social media departure last summer and wanted to use the time to focus on her mental health.
In her statement, she wrote, "My life has never been smooth or easy. I have carried a heavy weight on my back for quite some time, and it has weighed me down, physically, mentally, and emotionally. So many things and people have tried to crush and break me. I refuse to be defeated by this weight, I refuse to be hardened by this weight. I want to feel light and happy again."
16.Finally, in 2019, Constance Wu left social media after receiving backlash from her tweets about her show Fresh Off the Boat.
She returned to social media three years later to share a statement about how her mental health suffered afterwards: "I felt awful about what I'd said, and when a few DMs from a fellow Asian actress told me I'd become a blight on the Asian American community, I started feeling like I didn't even deserve to live anymore. That I was a disgrace to AsAms, and they'd be better off without me."
She added, "Looking back, it's surreal that a few DMs convinced me to end my own life, but that's what happened. Luckily, a friend found me and rushed me to the ER."
Constance's Twitter account has since been deleted, but her statement still exists on her Instagram page.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-888-950-6264 (NAMI) and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
