If you're following the celebrity drama on Twitter — and no one could blame you if you're not — you may have noticed that with Elon Musk taking control of Twitter, a number of Hollywood celebrities and others who are more or lesser known have decided to fulfill their promises to leave the platform in protest.

Well, sort of.

As of this writing on November 2, R&B singer Toni Braxton had not closed her account, even though on October 28, she tweeted to her 1.8 million followers, "I'm shocked and appalled at some of the 'free speech' I've seen on this platform since its acquisition.  Hate speech under the veil of 'free speech' is unacceptable; therefore I am choosing to stay off Twitter as it is no longer a safe space for myself, my sons and other POC" (people of color).

So, even though she left, she didn't leave, and she's keeping those 1.8 million followers, at least for now.

Ken Olin, the Hollywood producer and director, best known to the public as an actor on the 1990s dramatic series 30 Something, decided on a staycation as well.

He too announced to his 292,000 followers that he was done with Twitter.  Like Braxton, he has yet to deactivate his account and give up those followers.  He had warned that if Musk took control of Twitter, he would leave, and this is what he tweeted on October 28: "I'm out of here.  No judgement.  Let's keep the faith.  Let's protect our democracy.  Let's try to be kinder.  Let's try to save the planet.  Let's try to be more generous.  Let's look to find peace in the world."

Apparently, the one thing he's not looking to do is give up his followers by shutting down his Twitter account.

Singer and actor Sara Bareilles, on October 30, told her 2.8 million followers, "Welp.  It's been fun Twitter.  I'm out.  See you on other platforms, peeps.  Sorry, this one's just not for me."

Except it is for her, at least for now.

Shonda Rhimes is a well known TV executive in Hollywood, and the holder of 1.9 million Twitter followers.  On October 29, she tweeted, "Not hanging around for whatever Elon has planned.  Bye."

But of course, she hasn't closed her account.

British TV presenter Jameela Jamil, back on April 25, tweeted to her 1 million followers, "One good thing about Elon buying (T)witter is that I will *FINALLY* leave and stop being a complete menace to society on here.  So it's a win win for you all really."

Her account is still active.

If you don't actually know all or most of these names, that's probably not a coincidence.  One way to retain your relevance in Hollywood, especially if you're a B-lister, is to generate headlines, take a stand on some accepted woke cause of the day through some sort of threat, but never really follow through.

After all, we're talking about millions of followers.  Some "influencers" make a certain amount of their income taking money from brands on the promise they will expose those brands to their sought-after followings.

If they were to deactivate their Twitter accounts, they'd have to start all over, rebuilding those followings.  Elon Musk poses a problem for them in ways that have nothing to do with their ideologies and their allegations that he's a friend of misinformation.

In fact, he's an enemy of Twitter bots and fake accounts.  He has promised to clean the platform of bots and fake accounts that at best do nothing more than to beef up follower counts for celebrities and influencers.  At worst, these fake accounts often swarm to attack and silence anyone with a dissenting point of view.

In this new operating environment under Musk, if a Hollywood personality decided to deactivate his Twitter account and then start a new one, how long would it take for him to attract hundreds of thousands or millions of followers again?  Probably never.

This is not to conclude that celebrities "leaving" Twitter don't have their ideological concerns.  It's most likely a mix.  They hate free speech.  They don't like Musk for defending it.  They love having large numbers of followings.  Some can "sell" those followings to brands to make money as influencers.  From an ego standpoint, most of these disgruntled celebrities have enjoyed the status of having blue checkmarks to verify their self-importance, and to dominate the conversation on the platform.

The arrival of Elon Musk at the helm of Twitter means that much of that will go away.  Power to the peasants.  In the process, celebrity Twitter valuations will go down, and that makes them feel bad.  So some of the Hollywood elitists have decided to take a stand.  Just don't hold them to it.

Image: Twitter.