Over 50% Twitter users want Musk out as CEO in his own poll
Twitter CEO Elon Musk may be on his way out if he keeps his promise to bow down once users want to boot him out through an online poll.
Musk, who engineered the ouster of half of the total 7,500 Twitter employees runs the risk of meeting the same fate now.
A clear majority of Twitter users who took part in a poll conducted by Elon Musk voted for him to step down as head of the social media platform.
Amid fears of bankruptcy looming large on Twitter, Musk on Sunday tweeted, "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll."
The writing is on the wall. More than 17.5 million votes were cast in the poll, with 57.5% in favour of the Twitter CEO stepping down, while 42.5% of votes were against the move. The poll closed at around 6:20 a.m. ET.
Musk remains tight-lipped over the results of the poll as of early Tuesday morning. “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,” he tweeted late Sunday.
In the face of mounting criticism, Musk has previously said he plans to eventually step down as CEO of Twitter and find someone else to run the company over time.
Earlier, Twitter briefly banned users from promoting accounts on other social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Truth Social before the prohibition vanished from its policy page.
The restrictive policy had come after many users started posting links to other social media accounts as they looked to depart Twitter following Musk’s October 27 takeover, which has since seen the reinstatement of some far-right accounts, the suspension of journalists and mass layoffs.
“We recognise that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” Twitter support tweeted Sunday. “However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.”
The Twitter CEO contradicted the policy. “Casually sharing occasional links is fine, but no more relentless advertising of competitors for free, which is absurd in the extreme.”
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On Sunday evening, the platform’s page with the new policy language had been replaced with a “page not found” 404 message. It indicates deleted or moved content. References to the prohibition on outside social media also disappeared from Twitter Support’s feed Sunday night without explanation.
The policy had been ridiculed as ironic, coming from a CEO who had vowed to be a "free speech absolutist."
It attracted such swift criticism, including from past defenders of Musk's leadership, that the billionaire vowed not to make further policy changes without an online survey of Twitter users.
"My apologies. Won't happen again," he tweeted, before launching his new poll asking whether he should step down.