John Oliver pulled no punches in his latest Last Week Tonight segment, delivering a withering assessment of what X - the platform formerly known as Twitter - has become under Elon Musk's ownership since his 2022 takeover.
In the latest episode, Oliver walked through what he described as a litany of failures under Musk's stewardship - a botched verification system that enabled spoof accounts, deep cuts to content moderation staff - including a more than 50 percent reduction in full-time moderators - and the reinstatement of previously banned accounts belonging to figures including Donald Trump, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Nick Fuentes, and UK far-right activist Tommy Robinson.
Oliver calls X 'worse than useless'
Oliver called the platform 'worse than useless' when it comes to getting news, and notably refused to use the updated name Musk gave it when he took over. "The point here is Twitter has become a sewer of misinformation, with the power to bring about troubling real world impacts," he said. "To be clear, this is now a problem that goes far beyond this administration or this country."
The segment also highlighted how misinformation spreads rapidly on the platform, often from accounts based outside the United States, and how the Trump administration has become deeply reliant on it as a communications tool. Oliver cited the 2024 anti-Muslim riots in the United Kingdom - which followed the stabbing deaths of three children in Southport – as a stark example of real-world consequences stemming from misinformation amplified on the platform.
On the question of who benefits from the chaos, Oliver pointed to X's monetisation model, which pays creators based on engagement - a system he argued creates financial incentives for pushing out false and inflammatory content in the wake of tragedies.
Oliver argued that the platform is 'genuinely worse now' than it was before Musk's arrival, even acknowledging that the old Twitter was far from perfect and had "helped platform a lot of ugliness."
His sharpest words were reserved for Musk himself. "A massive media platform has been shaped in the image of its poisonous owner," Oliver said, adding that Musk's brain seems to be "thoroughly cooked by the garbage he consumes on his own site."
Near the end of the segment, Oliver noted that he had abandoned the platform more than a year ago and advised viewers to consider doing the same. "My personal advice is to not post on it at all," he said. "I haven't done that in over a year, although I will be going back there tomorrow to post a link to this piece before going silent again."
Oliver briefly activated his X account to post the video
True to his word, Oliver briefly reactivated his account the following Monday to share the segment with his followers. "Hello again! Here's our piece from Sunday about Twitter," he wrote, before signing off with a simple, "Bye!" The post marked his first activity on the platform since December 2024.
He closed the show with a callback to one of Musk's most infamous moments - the day the billionaire arrived at Twitter's headquarters carrying a sink and tweeting "Let that sink in."
Oliver called it "a joke so funny I'm still laughing right now," dripping with sarcasm, before concluding: "The Twitter that was fun and occasionally useful is just well and truly gone. And collectively, while it might be sad, it might be past time for all of us to - if I may borrow a truly poisoned phrase - let that sink in."
