Author and clinical psychologist Dr. Jordan Peterson quit Twitter after backlash from comments he made Monday about Sports Illustrated’s plus-size Swimsuit model.
Peterson posted that he is “departing once again,” from Twitter after the overwhelming response he received for commenting on the cover photograph of Yumi Nu, a plus-size Asian model. (RELATED: ‘I Hate You’: Cardi B Deletes Twitter And Instagram After Feud With Fans)
“I recently stopped accessing Twitter for three weeks as an experiment. I had some of my staff post video links etc. It was a genuine relief. I started to read [and] write more. I started using it again, a few days ago, and I would say that my life got worse almost instantly,” Peterson wrote in the first post of a lengthy Twitter thread explaining his departure.
And I plan to write an article on the technical reasons that Twitter is maddening us all very soon. Bye for now. https://t.co/naJnLabtqz
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) May 17, 2022
“The endless flood of vicious insult is really not something that can be experienced anywhere else. I like to follow the people I know but I think the incentive structure of the platform makes it intrinsically and dangerously insane,” he continued.
“So I told my staff to change my password, to keep me from temptation, and I 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,” he concluded, noting “And I plan to write an article on the technical reasons that Twitter is maddening us all very soon. Bye for now.”
Peterson commented that Nu’s Sports Illustrated cover photograph was “not beautiful,” and that “no amount of authoritarian tolerance is going to change that,” leading to a significant backlash from Twitter users.