In what may go down as one of the most dramatic media shake-ups of the year, ABC has reportedly lost almost 1 million subscribers overnight. The reason? One tweet from tech mogul Elon Musk, who, after witnessing what he described as “blatant bias” during ABC’s recent presidential debate coverage, called for a full-blown boycott of the network. As with most things involving Musk, the fallout was swift, chaotic, and absolutely meme-worthy.
The Twitter/X tycoon’s simple but potent call to arms came after the highly anticipated Trump vs. Harris debate, moderated by ABC’s David Muir and Linsey Davis. While presidential debates are always hotbeds of contention, this one hit a new level of absurdity, with Musk’s ire specifically aimed at what he saw as the moderators’ heavy-handed fact-checking of Donald Trump. According to Musk and his followers, Harris received much lighter treatment during the debate, prompting Musk to jump in and declare ABC unwatchable.
“ABC is worse than your Wi-Fi during a Zoom call,” Musk tweeted late into the night. “Boycott them. Let’s show them who really runs the show.”
And just like that, the internet was ablaze.
Elon Musk, the man who can send cryptocurrency prices into a tailspin with a single meme and has Tesla’s stock bouncing like a rubber ball, has now proven that his influence extends beyond tech and into the heart of mainstream media. His followers, an eclectic mix of tech enthusiasts, libertarians, crypto investors, and those simply in awe of his spacefaring dreams, wasted no time jumping on the boycott bandwagon.
Within hours, #BoycottABC was trending across Twitter/X like wildfire, igniting furious debates about media bias, free speech, and whether or not Musk should start his own TV network on Mars (a suggestion that gained more support than it probably should have).
It didn’t take long for the digital stampede to show real-world consequences.
By morning, ABC’s subscription base was crumbling faster than a stale cookie. Nearly 1 million subscribers, many of them long-time viewers, had canceled their ABC streaming services. Platforms connected to ABC, like Hulu, also began to feel the pinch as Musk’s followers opted to abandon anything even remotely affiliated with the network. Some claimed they were “purging” their apps to make sure no corporate wokeness survived the Musk-fueled purge.
