Elon Musk to step down as head of Twitter if poll holds
Elon Musk late on Sunday posted a poll asking users if he should step down from his role as head of Twitter, the social media platform he bought in October that has been roiled in controversy ever since.
Early results from the poll showed about 57 per cent of respondents were in favour of Mr Musk standing down.
He posted the 12-hour survey after apologising for banning links to several “prohibited” social media platforms including Facebook in a move that drew fierce condemnation.
“My apologies. Won’t happen again,” Mr Musk tweeted around the same time he launched the poll, whose results he promised to abide by.
Mr Musk’s tenure at Twitter has seen him hand several key decisions over to users, including whether former president Donald Trump’s banned account should be reinstated or whether journalists accused of “doxxing” personal information should have their bans reversed.
But Mr Musk seemed to massively raise the stakes at a personal level by placing his own position at the company that cost him an initial $44 billion, and billions more since, in the hands of Twitter users.
Several poll respondents claimed Mr Musk knew it would likely oppose him remaining.
“As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” he tweeted, adding that he did not have a successor picked out.
Since walking into Twitter’s head office in San Francisco carrying a sink in late October, barely a day has gone by without Mr Musk drawing global headlines from decisions he made, many seemingly on a whim, at the platform.
