DISTURBED's DAVID DRAIMAN: 'I'm Never Returning To TWITTER'

DISTURBED singer David Draiman says that he is "never returning to Twitter," three years after deleting his account on the social media platform.

Draiman, who once said that he spent more time on the Internet communicating with his fanbase than any other musician, told Loudwire that he is no longer able to keep in contact with his fans as much as he used to. "No, I can't on the same level, by any means, and it's unfortunate," he said (see video below). "It's also a matter of just pure numbers. Once it got to a point where I could no longer handle it in terms of sheer volume and size, it became a daunting thing — it became something that actually came between me and my wife; I spent so much time on it."

He continued: "The water has been poisoned for quite some time as far as interaction is concerned. Social media has become a high school playground where the challenge is what idiot can come up with the best insult, and do you end up congratulating 'em for it. It's really sad. Either that or people just pushing their own respective ideas on everyone, trying to shove everything down everybody else's throats, and so much elitism and so much lack of camaraderie and lack of unity. It's become a very, very ugly thing."

Pressed about whether he has plans to one day reopen an official Twitter account, Draiman said: "No, never. I'm never returning to Twitter."

This past August, Draiman admitted to SiriusXM Octane that while he does not have an official presence on Twitter, he still uses the platform "as a news tool. I still have a 'shadow' Twitter account," he explained. "But I don't tweet, I don't spew anything. It's just there for me to be able to get my news."

Draiman has in the past battled with Twitter trolls who have harassed him about his sometimes-controversial views regarding Israel and its ongoing conflict with the Palestinians. Draiman has had frequent heated exchanges with followers on Twitter, some of whom believe that Israel is not blameless in the ongoing conflict with Palestinians.

Draiman, the son of Israelis and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, spent much of 2014 and early 2015 linking to articles by conservative and pro-Israel blogs and has often used his fame to speak out against anti-Semitism.