Elon Musk is letting all Twitter users vote on his resignation
Twitter owner Elon Musk (stock image)
Credit: AFP/JIM WATSON
Twitter owner Elon Musk has his platform voted on whether he should resign as head of the social media platform. He announced that he would stick to the vote. In the first two and a half hours, more than 6.8 million users voted, with a very clear interim result.
Elon Musk, who is under fire over recent policy changes at Twitter, is asking Twitter users to vote on whether he should step down as head of the social media platform.
Twitter’s new owner will abide by the poll’s results, he promised in a tweet Sunday night. Musk also said he would vote on major changes going forward.
Unlike the previous ones, the survey is only designed to run for 12 hours. Voting will therefore end around 12:20 CET. In the first two and a half hours, more than 6.8 million users voted, and according to the tweet, 57 percent voted for Musk’s resignation at that time.
The US billionaire didn’t say when he would step down, if poll results suggest it does. “There is no successor,” Musk replied when asked by a Twitter user about a possible change in the post.
Twitter had previously been criticized after the online network announced that it would no longer allow its users to advertise their presence on certain competing platforms, including FacebookInstagram or Mastodon.
In another tweet, Musk promised to also put major policy changes for the platform up for a vote in the future. “I beg your pardon. Will not happen again.”
According to Twitter, the new policy against competing platforms applies to both tweets and the biography of your own account. In the future, Twitter will no longer allow free advertising for certain social media platforms on Twitter, it said.
Musk has made a variety of controversial changes since taking over the social network. In the past he had always presented himself as a champion of freedom of expression. Among other things, Musk unlocked accounts that had been blocked for messages that were unwanted on Twitter before his takeover.
However, Twitter had blocked the accounts of several prominent US journalists since Thursday. According to those affected, the closures were carried out without warning. A large part of the accounts has now been activated again – but the criticism of the procedure was huge. Many users then advertised the Twitter competitor Mastodon as an alternative – but also before that.
In recent years, Twitter has developed into an important communication platform: governments, authorities and politicians use Twitter for their public relations work all over the world.
Musk’s involvement on Twitter worries Tesla investors that he could become increasingly distracted from leading the electric car maker in times of global economic weakness. Car expert Ferdinand Dudenhöffer also sees the quarrels surrounding the Twitter platform as a threat to Tesla’s success. Musk has to be careful “that he doesn’t go too far with his Twitter escapades in a direction that robs him of the sympathy he’s had so far,” Dudenhöffer told the Märkische Oderzeitung. “With his autocratic demeanor, Musk is becoming more and more of a risk for Tesla and Grünheide.”
When asked by the newspaper whether the “Twitter chaos” harmed the Tesla brand and the plant in Grünheide, Dudenhöffer replied: “Absolutely yes. Musk is becoming more and more entangled in contradictions, rules autocratically over an information platform, has to sell Tesla shares in order not to let his expensive Twitter takeover crash. ”The investment in Twitter also meant that there were no budgets that Musk might need for Tesla had, said Dudenhöffer. This in turn could make it more difficult to keep up the high pace at Tesla.