Elon Musk seemed destined to quit running the affairs of Twitter Monday after over 17 million users voted for him to step down less than two months after he bought the microblogging platform for $44 billion.
The Tesla billionaire launched the 12-hour ballot on his page on Sunday night at 11.20 pm asking: “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.”
The voting ended with 17.5 million voters saying Mr Musk should resign as Twitter’s chief executive, with 43 per cent saying he should stay around three hours before the poll closed Monday, December 19 2022.
It was unclear whether Mr Musk would respect the results and actually step down if that was the choice. Last week he removed a poll on reinstating the accounts of suspended journalists before it had concluded.
After launching the poll, the billionaire Tesla boss also tweeted that people should be careful what they wish for, but denied that he has already selected his potential replacement.
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Mr Musk said.
Meanwhile since buying Twitter and taking over as the Chief Executive Officer in late October, the billionaire owner of Tesla has been involved in a series of controversies on the ‘blue app.’
After buying the company for $44 billion from its former CEO, Jack Dorsey, Musk began to make some controversial changes to the company’s policy and personnel.
He sacked several of Twitter’s top executives and half of the company’s staff immediately after becoming its CEO and announced a stop to remote working for the remaining, lucky employees.
He then gave the remaining staff an ultimatum that they needed to do “extremely hardcore” work or leave, an announcement that saw hundreds or so of the remaining staff quit the company.
The new CEO has fired employees who openly disagreed with his policies or tweets.
Musk went on to announce a new policy to commercialise the verification badge on the social media platform, a policy which raised dust among tweeps.
He first proposed a $20 monthly subscription fee for the blue badge, which he later slashed to $8.
He has frequently changed Twitter’s rules by executive fiat and with no prior notice and has banned tweeps who violated his new rules.
