Overview
On Sunday, Twitter CEO Elon Musk launched a poll on the social media platform asking users whether he should step down as head of the company, noting that he would abide by the poll results. The poll ran for 12 hours, and people have spoken…
The science and other stuff to know
Elon Musk has been making changes on Twitter ever since he took office as the CEO and now it seems even his position is up for debate. The billionaire recently tweeted a poll asking people to vote on whether he should step down as Twitter’s CEO. He added that he’d gladly abide by the poll’s results.
“Should I step down as head of Twitter?” Musk asked in his tweet. “I will abide by the results of this poll.”
In several follow-up tweets, Musk said he was serious about leaving the social media platform but made a vague threat about Twitter’s future if he’s voted out.
“As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” Musk said in one of his tweets.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
More than 17.5 million Twitter users voted during the 12-hour poll, which ended at 6:20 a.m. on Monday. The ultimate outcome saw 57 percent of voters conclude that Musk should stand down. The Twitter CEO hasn’t commented on the poll’s outcome yet. Let’s wait and see whether he’ll resign.
So what?
Musk’s poll comes after Twitter’s newest policy that it’d no longer allow “free promotion” of other social media platforms sparked massive backlash online. In the policy, Twitter said that users would no longer be allowed to post usernames and links to other social media platforms including Mastodon, Facebook, and Instagram.
The new poll is part of Musk’s attempt to abdicate Twitter’s major policy decisions to the public.
In an earlier tweet, following backlash over the “free promotion” policy, Musk tweeted, “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes.”
What’s next?
Musk’s lack of popularity shouldn’t be a surprise. Since buying Twitter for $44 billion and taking over as CEO, he has journeyed from one controversy to the next.
He recently fired about half of Twitter’s employees, including several top executives, and laid off workers who question decisions. He even suspended several journalists for writing about or tweeting about an open-source website that tracks private jets’ flight paths, including Musk’s.
