Mark Hamill, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movie franchise, is not only increasing his involvement in aid initiatives for the Ukrainian wartime crisis, but he's now also fighting a new battle on social media.
After decades of confronting Darth Vader and the evil empire on screen, Hamill is now leveraging his social media clout to challenge Elon Musk's renaming of Twitter to 'X.'
What Happened: The rebranding of social media platform Twitter to X and subsequent logo change has drawn mixed reactions from users and the public.
One person who doesn’t appear to be a fan of the change is Hamill, who is taking a break from the platform in the form of a one-day boycott.
Hamill shared a post from the Twitter/X account @MzSgtPepper, which suggested that users on the social media platform should refrain from posting on Aug. 1.
“This will only be effective if EVERYONE refrains from tweeting (X-ing?) on August 1st a/k/a #TweetlessTuesday. Let’s show the owner the POWER OF THE PEOPLE. Honestly, would it kill you to keep your thoughts to yourself for 1 damn day? Read a book!” Hamill tweeted with the hashtag #August1stTweetOutDay.
The actor shared several updates over the past several days ahead of the one-day break from Twitter.
“Tomorrow is #August1stTweetOutDay. Join me, @MzSgtPepper & the WHOLE WORLD in NOT tweeting for 24 hrs. I won’t dignify accusations that this is a political statement when it is, in fact, simply an experimental STUNT because I’m bored & wanna see what happens.”
Hamill issued one final tweet late Monday night.
“I just want to find 10,011,780+ folks, which is way more than we have, to go silent tomorrow on Twitter. Not a HOAX! Not a SCAM! Just a PRANK to make August a little less blah. TUESDAY: DON’T BE HERE!”
Hamill shared a Fox News article highlighting his “boycott” and said he’s been successful in creating a distraction.
“Thanks to all who helped make this a thing & yes, it already IS a thing. A dumb thing, but still…Now how BIG CAN YOU MAKE IT for no apparent reason?”
Related Link: Long Live The Bird: Here's How You Can Get The Twitter Logo Back On Your App And Web Browser
Why It’s Important: Hamill is among the celebrities that have spoken out over the name change from Twitter to X.
“Has everybody seen the (eXecerable) new logo?” Hamill tweeted recently with the hashtags #ByeByeBirdie and #TaTaTwitter.
While Hamill appears to be taking just one day off from the newly named platform and doing it in a rather joking manner, he may want to be careful.
Musk, who acquired the social media platform for $44 billion in 2022, has been keeping receipts of those who choose to leave the platform and publicly criticize it.
Actor Ron Perlman, best known for his roles in “Hellboy” and “Sons of Anarchy,” announced on July 10 that he was leaving Twitter for Threads, a competing platform from Meta Platforms META.
“Breaking…I’m taking my business to THREADS,” Perlman tweeted.
The actor randomly reappeared on X on July 30 with his first post in over two weeks.
“Woke up to see twitter is now ‘X’. The real question is ‘Y’,” Perlman tweeted.
Musk was among the people who commented on the new post from the actor, adding a simple “oh hi lol.”
The reply was met with praise from users who also shared the old tweet from Perlman that he was leaving Twitter, only to come back as reports of Threads seeing declining engagement.
Several celebrities announced they were leaving Twitter after Musk announced the acquisition previously.
For now, it looks like Hamill's 5.2 million followers on X will see his posts in the future, but they'll just have to wait until Wednesday, Aug. 2.
Photo:Shutterstock
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