More than half of 17.5 million users have responded Twitter poll created by billionaire Elon Musk on whether he should resign as the company’s head voted yes by the time the poll ended on Monday.
No immediate notification from Twitter, or Musk, on whether that will happen, though Musk said he would stick to the outcome. Musk attended the World Cup final on Sunday and could be in the middle of a flight on his way back to the US early Monday.
Musk has conducted a number of unscientific polls on key issues facing the social media platform, including whether to reinstate the journalists he has suspended from Twitter. which has been widely criticized within and outside the media.
Musk has clashed with a number of users on multiple fronts, and on Sunday he asked Twitter users to decide whether he should stay in charge of the social media platform after admitting that he He made the mistake of introducing new speech restrictions that forbade mentions of rival social media sites on Twitter.
The results of the 12-hour non-scientific online survey showed that 57.5% of those who voted wanted him to go, while the remaining 42.5% wanted him to speak.
The latest poll comes after another significant policy change since Musk acquired Twitter in October. Twitter has announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms. which the company describes as “prohibited”.
Elon Musk opens poll asking if he should resign Twitter
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That decision generated an immediate backlash, including criticism from former defenders of Twitter’s new owner that Musk had promised not to make any major policy changes. without an online survey of users.
The move to block competitors is Musk’s latest attempt to crack down on certain speeches after he shut down his Twitter account that tracks flights by his private jet last week.
Banned platforms include mainstream sites like Facebook and Instagram, and former President Donald Trump’s upstart rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and Truth Social. Twitter did not provide an explanation as to why the blacklist included those seven sites and not others like Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn.
A test case is prominent venture capitalist Paul Graham, who has previously praised Musk but on Sunday told his 1.5 million Twitter followers that this was the “final push.” ” and look for him on Mastodon. His Twitter account was quickly suspended and soon reinstated as Musk promised to reverse the policy implemented just hours earlier.
Musk’s policy decisions have divided users. He has supported freedom of expression, but has suspended journalists and closed a long-standing account tracking the whereabouts of his jet, calling it a security risk.
But he changed the policies, then changed them again, creating a sense of confusion on the ground about what was allowed and what wasn’t.
Musk permanently banned the @ElonJet account on Wednesday, then changed Twitter’s rules to prohibit sharing other people’s current location without their consent. He then targeted journalists who were writing about the jet-tracking account, which can still be found on other social media sites, alleging that they were broadcasting “basically assassination coordinates”.
He used that to justify Twitter’s moves last week to suspend the accounts of many journalists covering the social media platform and Musk, among them reporters working for the company. The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and other publications. Many of those accounts were reinstated following an online poll by Musk.
Then, over the weekend, Taylor Lorenz of The Washington Post became the latest journalist to be temporarily banned. She said she was suspended after posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and asking for an interview.
Sally Buzbee, executive editor of The Washington Post, called it “an arbitrary suspension of another Post journalist” further undermining Musk’s promise to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to self-help. by speech.
“Once again, the suspension came with no warning, process or explanation — this time our reporter was merely seeking comment from Musk for a story,” Buzbee said. By noon Sunday, Lorenz’s account had been reinstated, as was the tweet she thought got her suspended.
Musk was questioned in court on November 16 about how he divides his time between Tesla and his other companies, including SpaceX and Twitter. Musk had to testify in Delaware’s Premier Court about a shareholder’s challenge to Musk’s potential $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company.
Musk said he never intended to be CEO of Tesla and that he also doesn’t want to be CEO of any other company, preferring instead to consider himself an engineer. than. Musk also said he expects Twitter’s organizational restructuring to be complete in the next week or so. It’s been over a month since he said that.
In a public chat with Twitter followers on Sunday, Musk expressed pessimism about the prospect of a new CEO, saying that person “must suffer a lot” to run a company. on the verge of bankruptcy.”
“Nobody wants the job that can actually keep Twitter alive. No successor,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
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