Why I'm Leaving X: LinkedIn Post Takes Aim At Elon Musk, AI And Cost To Society

A sharply worded LinkedIn post by social media user Pranjal Kamra announcing his decision to leave X has struck a chord amid growing global scrutiny of artificial intelligence, platform accountability and the environmental cost of Big Tech.

Titled 'Why I am leaving X: An Open Letter to Elon Musk', the post accuses the billionaire entrepreneur of causing "immense harm" to society through a combination of unchecked AI deployment, weak user protections and what Kamra describes as hypocrisy on climate responsibility.

Kamra’s central argument is environmental. He claims that X’s aggressive push to roll out AI features such as Grok has a heavy carbon footprint, driven largely by data centres consuming vast amounts of energy and water.

"You actively harm the earth through rage-bait implementations of Grok, and then sell a dream of going to Mars,' he wrote, arguing that the pursuit of interplanetary ambitions sits uneasily with what he sees as damage being inflicted on Earth.

These concerns echo warnings from the United Nations Environment Programme, which has flagged the environmental toll of AI infrastructure. Large-scale AI systems are housed in energy-intensive data centres that rely on vast quantities of raw materials, generate hazardous electronic waste, and consume enormous amounts of water for cooling.

The UNEP estimates that AI-related infrastructure could soon use six times more water than Denmark, while the International Energy Agency has said a single AI query can consume up to 10 times the electricity of a standard Google search.

Beyond climate concerns, Kamra also accused X of deliberately allowing impersonation to flourish, pushing users toward paid subscriptions for better identity protection. "You take a basic legal right and turn it into a paid feature,” he said, adding that the fear of losing reach or credibility is being “harvested” for revenue.

His most serious charge relates to individual dignity. Kamra criticised X for allowing AI-powered image generation and modification that he described as an "assault on the modesty of women". He rejected Musk’s defence that AI is merely a neutral tool, arguing that systems with intelligence and scale cannot be equated to passive objects like pens.

The post comes as regulators sharpen their focus on Grok. Britain’s media regulator Ofcom has launched an investigation into whether sexually explicit deepfakes generated via the chatbot breached UK laws protecting users from illegal content, including potential child sexual abuse material.

In India, government sources said X had “accepted its mistake” after a warning from the IT Ministry, blocking thousands of pieces of content and deleting hundreds of accounts linked to obscene AI-generated imagery.

Kamra acknowledges that leaving X may hurt his business, but says the decision is a moral one. “I don’t claim to be an environmentalist,” he wrote, “but the scale and magnitude at which you are doing this needs to be called out.”