Status: 12/19/2022 12:58 p.m
Elon Musk is about to resign as CEO of the short message service Twitter. In a survey he initiated himself, the majority of users spoke out in favor of his replacement.
Tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk is said to be stepping down from his chief post, according to Twitter users. This is the result of an online poll organized by Musk himself. Of the 17.5 million votes cast, 57.5 percent were for the resignation and 42.5 percent against – a vote that Musk said he wanted to stick to.
“Should I resign as head of Twitter? I will follow the results of this poll,” Musk wrote on Twitter that night.
Users could vote “Yes” or “No”. Musk didn’t say when he would step down, if the poll results suggest it. “There is no successor,” he replied when asked by a Twitter user about a possible change in the post.
Twitter acquired for $44 billion
The 51-year-old Tesla boss joined forces with other investors to take over the short message service in October for $44 billion and laid off a large part of the workforce to reduce the loss-making company’s costs.
There were concerns in parts of politics and civil society that the multi-billionaire could use the world’s most important short message service according to his taste and negatively influence democratic opinion-forming, for example by hardly allowing any action to be taken against false information.
Not the first poll
Other actions by the controversial entrepreneur also caused sharp criticism. He recently blocked several US journalists’ Twitter accounts, but later unblocked them.
It’s not the first poll Musk has had on Twitter. Last year, for example, he committed a Twitter vote to selling a tenth of his Tesla shares. In November, he had a vote on whether former US President Donald Trump could work for the short message service again. Yes, he can, was the answer with a narrow majority, whereupon Twitter unblocked the account again.
Musk’s plan to no longer allow Twitter users to advertise their presence on certain competing platforms – including Facebook, Instagram or Mastodon – caused displeasure.
Musk promised in another tweet on Monday night that major changes to the platform’s guidelines would also be put to the vote in the future. “My apologies. Won’t happen again.”
Presented as a champion of freedom of expression
Musk has always presented himself as a champion of freedom of speech. He finally propagated conspiracy theories on Twitter and used the platform to promote the US Republicans in his tweets.
The online service has developed into an important communication platform in recent years. Governments, authorities and politicians all over the world use Twitter for their public relations work.