A majority of polled Twitter users have decided that Elon Musk should step down as the platform’s CEO. Musk had put his continued stewardship of the company up to a vote after a series of controversial policy changes.
Musk launched the poll on Sunday asking Twitter users to decide “should I step down as head of Twitter?” The platform’s sole owner and CEO promised to abide by the results of the survey, just as he did when he put the decision to reinstate the account of former President Donald Trump to the public.
By the time the poll closed on Sunday night, 57.5% of more than 17 million respondents suggested that Musk step down, with 42.5% preferring him to remain in charge. Musk had not yet commented on the results by Monday morning.
In conversation with several prominent Twitter users on Sunday evening, the billionaire said that he had “no successor” in mind, and that finding “a CEO who can keep Twitter alive” would be a challenge. “No one wants the job who can keep Twitter alive,” he wrote.
Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October, promising to roll back some of its more odious censorship policies and make the platform a “digital town square” for free and open debate. Since his takeover, he has fired more than half of the platform’s staff, including senior executives involved in the banning of Trump’s account, and released internal communications showing that these executives colluded with the FBI to remove information the agency wanted hidden.
Musk temporarily suspended several prominent journalists in recent days for sharing information on his location, in violation of the platform’s ‘doxxing’ rules. Twitter also announced on Sunday that it would block users for linking to competing social media platforms, although Musk said shortly afterwards that this policy would be “adjusted” to ensure that only accounts that exist primarily to promote competitors would be suspended.
“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes,” he declared on Sunday night, adding that such unexpected changes “won’t happen again.”