Since Donald Trump's victory in the US election last week, there's been a massive exodus from X, formerly known as Twitter (and still referred to as such by most people). The reasons to leave keep multiplying. For artists especially, there's a new, big one: starting on November 15, 2024, X users will no longer be able to opt out of their tweets being used for AI training.

On Friday, Twitter / X put into effect a massive and important change to their terms of service. "By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free license to make your Content available to the rest of the world," the new terms read. Note that this does not just apply to X's in-built AI, Grok. The platform can sell your work and data to train other AI on.

Previously, users were able to simply opt out of allowing X to use their data for AI training. But after November 15, it seems that will no longer be possible. If creatives do not want their work to be gobbled up by AI without their consent, I -- and most of the artists which populate Twitter -- encourage you to delete all tweets of your work immediately. The same goes for anyone who has posted pictures of themselves on Twitter / X that they don't want to be made fodder, either.

Even before Twitter / X's new terms of service, there have been whole host of reasons people have been leaving the platform: weakened protections against harassment on the platform, the recent change enable people you've blocked to still see your tweets, increased toxicity in people's timelines. Oh, and the fact that X's CEO, Elon Musk, campaigned for Trump and will have a place in his cabinet, inciting fears of a crackdown into users who have criticized Trump on the platform.

Since Election Day, there has truly been an full-on exodus. Competitor Bluesky has added over one million new users in the last week. An additional one million users reportedly joined within the last 24 hours alone -- so many people that, by early in the afternoon on November 14, Bluesky was experiencing some overload difficulties.

Twitter / X's new terms of service are also following a fraught few years where artists of all kinds have been fighting for protections against AI. Time and time again, artists in particular have seen AI spit out "original works" which bear striking and suspicious resemblance to pieces they've posted on the internet. SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America both went on strike last year, with AI-related issues as a predominant concern. Writers, musicians, actors, artists, and more are do not want their works or likenesses being used without their consent -- and without compensation.

Which is why Twitter / X sneakily changing their terms of service is so disgusting. Users need to know something this important, that their tweets will now be used for AI training. And yet, X seems to be attempting to keep the change as quiet as possible. The loudest indicators of the change have been artists on the platform, sounding the alarm out of concern for their fellow creatives.

So perhaps today truly is the day you delete your Twitter / X account. Or if you don't delete it entirely, you might want to comb through it and make sure that your pictures and original works are off of the platform. The one good thing about the continued fight for AI protections is that we're learning how to mobilize and look out for each other.