LONDON– Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, renamed it “X,” laid off a large portion of its staff, and made other major changes, numerous celebrities, public figures, organizations, and individuals have left the social media platform.

Some blame Musk for turning what was once a fun place into a chaotic and toxic country, pointing to moves like welcoming back polarizing figures like Donald Trump. Others find Musk’s childish humor off-putting, or the way he increasingly bursts into their feeds with his posts, often to reinforce far-right stereotypes.

They’re moving to competing sites like BlueSky, Mastodon, Meta’s Threads, and Reddit. Some are even – horror of it – giving up on social media altogether.

So if you have decided it is time to quit X, here is what you need to do:

Start by deactivating your account. This will start a 30-day countdown until your account is permanently deleted. Go to Settings & Privacy, then the Account tab and click Deactivate Account, enter your password and confirm that you want to proceed.

Once you proceed, your profile and username will no longer be visible to the public. If you change your mind, you can cancel at any time during the 30-day period by logging in.

If you have a subscription, such as a Premium account, cancel it if you do not wish to make any further payments. Subscriptions are only automatically canceled if the account is deleted.

If your account is reactivated despite your inadvertence, X says on its help pages that it may be because you granted access to third-party apps. These are created by other software developers and can do things like read and compose posts or access direct messages on your behalf.

To see which third-party apps you’ve granted access to, go to the Settings menu, then Security & Account Access. Click Apps & Sessions, then Connected Apps. You can revoke access to individual apps by tapping or clicking the app.

If you suspect that a rogue app still has access to your account, try changing your password for X.

Before you leave the site for good, you can download an archive of all the data from your time on Twitter and X. This can be useful if you want to look up a memorable post you wrote, refer back to direct messages you exchanged with other users, or find the accounts you followed or who followed you back.

In the settings menu, you must enter your password to request the data, which is delivered in a ZIP file. When I requested my archive, which included 211 megabytes of data, it was available for download about 24 hours later.

What happens to that data when you’re gone for good? X states on its privacy page that it stores user profile information and content “for the duration of your account.” Other “personally identifiable information” is stored for up to 18 months, without specifying what that data is.

It has become a ritual for X users to announce that they are leaving the platform. Politicians and celebrities have used their last post to say goodbye to Musk, warn that the site is becoming too toxic, or inform their followers about the other social media they use. Then their statements usually disappear because their account is deleted.

Users who aren’t famous have written heartfelt goodbye letters on X, their blogs, or platforms like LinkedIn explaining their reasons for leaving. This isn’t necessary, but it can help you find closure.

Are you sure you want to leave your account permanently? If you are not ready to delete it completely, you can also lock it.

In your settings, go to the Privacy section, then click on Your Posts and check the boxes to protect your posts and videos.

When you protect your posts, only the people who already follow you will be able to see them. All other users will see a padlock. When they try to follow you, you will receive a notification asking them to access.

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