London, Feb. 16: A sign of the times perhaps: Stephen Fry has used Twitter to announce he was leaving Twitter. Today, his account reads: "Sorry, that page doesn't exist!"

Fry explained on his personal website, "The fun is over," after he was attacked online for his description of a Bafta winner, Jenny Beavan, as a "bag lady".

Twitter user Wendy Evans was one of many others who felt Fry overstepped the mark: "Stephen Fry's 'bag lady' comment was vile. Once again the achievement's (sic) of a female overshadowed by comments on her appearance."

Fry described what Twitter had allegedly become in very graphic terms: "Just one turd in a reservoir is enough to persuade one not to drink from it. 99.9% of the water may be excrement free, but that doesn't help."

His feelings of relief at leaving Twitter was "like a boulder rolling off my chest".

According to industry experts, the action of the 58-year-old English comedian, actor, writer, presenter and activist, who built up a 12-million strong following, will hit Twitter which is going through a period of decline.

Fry, who was a huge draw at the Jaipur Literary Festival last month, presented a Bafta on Sunday night as he has done for the past 11 years. But he faced strong criticism online after comparing costume designer Beavan to a "bag lady" when she picked up her Bafta for best costume design for Mad Max: Fury Road.

Beavan had come on the stage at London's Royal Opera House wearing a black leather jacket, white T-shirt and dark trousers.

As she left after delivering her acceptance speech, Fry risked one of his cutting jokes: "Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to the awards dressed like a bag lady."

But Fry said online afterwards Beavan was "a dear friend" who had "got" the joke.

He underlined the point by posting a photo of the pair at the Bafta after-party: "Jenny Baglady Beavan and Stephen Outrageous Misogynist Swine Fry at the after party."

Fry confirmed on his own website that "for anyone interested I have indeed deactivated my twitter account. I've 'left' twitter before, of course: many people have time off from it whether they are in the public eye or not. Think of it as not much more than leaving a room. I like to believe I haven't slammed the door, much less stalked off in a huff throwing my toys out of the pram as I go or however one should phrase it. It's quite simple really: the room had started to smell. Really quite bad."

Some of his analysis of how Twitter has developed will probably strike a chord with many users.

He wrote: "Oh goodness, what fun twitter was in the early days, a secret bathing-pool in a magical glade in an enchanted forest. ..... But now the pool is stagnant. It is frothy with scum, clogged with weeds and littered with broken glass, sharp rocks and slimy rubbish. If you don't watch yourself, with every move you'll end up being gashed, broken, bruised or contused. Even if you negotiate the sharp rocks you'll soon feel that too many people have peed in the pool for you to want to swim there any more. The fun is over."

He ended: "To leave that metaphor, let us grieve at what twitter has become. A stalking ground for the sanctimoniously self-righteous who love to second-guess, to leap to conclusions and be offended - worse, to be offended on behalf of others they do not even know. It's as nasty and unwholesome a characteristic as can be imagined. It doesn't matter whether they think they're defending women, men, transgender people, Muslims, humanists ... the ghastliness is absolutely the same."

In 2015, Fry left the social media site in February until May without giving reasons.

In 2014, he quit the site saying it was "unsafe" for him to tweet, adding he was filming "in a place whence I've been advised it is safest not to tweet". And in 2009, he threatened to leave after another user called his posts "boring".

Having failed to gain any new users in the last three months, Twitter usage actually dropped at one point at the end of 2015, before picking up again at the start of the year. However, share prices have continued to tumble and user numbers are now stuck at around 320 million, with rival Facebook having reached 1.5 billion and still growing.

Some 8per cent of the company's global workforce was also cut last year, amid criticism the site does not deal with abuse effectively.

Industry expert Rik Henderson, senior news editor at technology site Pocket-lint.com, said Fry's departure would hurt Twitter.

"Stephen Fry feeling forced to leave Twitter is like Colonel Sanders feeling forced to leave Kentucky," he commented. "He is synonymous with the medium and an integral part of why many people flooded to the social network in the first place. It's is a sad day when such a strong proponent of Twitter feels compelled to shut down his account because of the views of a vocal minority, but it is also indicative of what Twitter has become."