Over the past week, it seemed that Disney CEO Bob Iger was getting more active on Twitter. But Thursday evening, his @RobertIger account disappeared from the social media service.
Did Iger delete his account? We've reached out to Disney for any comment or clarification. [Update: The account reappeared on Friday morning. No explanation and no response from Disney. Update 2: Now it's down again.]
He hardly would be the first public figure to abandon the platform. Anyone famous enough to be noticed is famous enough to attract the attention of trolls and Stans, who can make digital interactions unbearable even for the most patient individuals.
Iger routined catches heat from Disney theme park fans upset about everything from the spread of IP in the parks to increasing prices... to anything else, for that matter. The latest episode found many of those fans attacking Iger for his comments in a recent Barron's interview, when he dismissed competing attractions that didn't have Disney's IP behind them with the line, "It’s not like, 'Well, I’m going to ride some nondescript named coaster somewhere that maybe is like, maybe is in India or whatever.'"
Some fans took that comment as an insult to Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom... even though that roller coaster is set in Nepal, not India. But why let facts get in the way of yelling at people online, right?
That the Disney Parks have spent billions of dollars on new attractions, driving all-time record attendance under Iger's leadership of Disney seems to get lost in the discussion. Perhaps it turns out that a lot of people like those Disney franchises and are willing to spend money to spend time with them?
No word on what it was that drove Iger away from the platform... or what happened, really. We will pass along any word once we hear it.
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In the defense of those who were upset: the article, before the comment was altered, it said "[themed like] India or whatever." And a lot of people figured that Iger may have lumped India and Nepal together in his mind with the "or whatever." The article's author adding the [themed like] completely changed the inference of what was said.
And the quote including the bit "that maybe is like, maybe is in India or whatever" not only wasn't in the original version of the article, it wasn't even there when I checked a couple days ago. It had simply been changed to "some nondescript coaster somewhere" without anything else following it. Given all that, I can 100% understand why people reacted as they did, especially when the rest of the quote vanished like they were trying to retcon it completely.
I also saw some people wondering, particularly after his tweet about opening "50 Captain Marvel attractions, plus Captain Marvel Cruise Ships, hotels, restaurants and parades," with the odd capitalization and the apparently mis-typed "#CapitaMarvel" hashtag, whether Iger's account had been hacked.
Anyone seen Bucky lately? He could be hunkered down in a basement somewhere laughing about running Iger's account for a few days before it was taken offline.
Social media is toxic. I bailed ages ago. Glad to see Iger following my lead.
Iger's account is up once again. So, to answer the question in the headline, no. Bob Iger did not delete. Turns out he wasn't looking to James for a lead after all.
It's gone. It's back. Now it's gone again.
I bet there's some fun conversations happening between the Disney and Twitter HQs now.
Wishy-washy Iger... come on, man, you have better things to do with your time than tweet! Galaxy’s Edge isn’t gonna open by itself! Get down in the dirt and get it done!
This is what Iger gets for allowing Thanos to run his Twitter account as an Avengers promotion.
Odd that this latest happens right when Disney shared how big of a pay raise their CEO just enjoyed. That Barrons interview is so last week after all...;)
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A good video to watch on youtube is "why successful people hide" by Grant Cardone. It is 100% accurate. The amount of ridiculous unsolicited hate that gets directed to people is a sad portrait of society. I'm sure Iger is thick skinned but he has no reason to put up with negative messages posted all over his profile, so why should he? I think it's kind of funny that he was on twitter in the first place.
As much as I love the internet and youtube, if all social media platforms fell off the face of the earth tomorrow the world would be a better place IMO. I could write pages and pages why I think this but in the sake of staying more closely related to the original point of the topic I won't =P