Twitter owner and chief executive officer Elon Musk has created a poll on the renowned social media platform, asking netizens if he should step down as its head. This follows his issuing an apology for proceeding with “major policy changes” to Twitter without consulting its user base and saying it “won’t happen again.”
Musk, who is also one of the world’s richest people, said in the Twitter poll that he would abide by its results, CNN also reported.
In the poll, he stated, “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll,” followed by “Yes” and “No” answer options.
This capped off another tumultuous week for Musk’s stewardship of Twitter, which comprised the suspension and subsequent reinstatement of various accounts belonging to journalists who had reported on the company, and a decision to ban users from linking to Facebook, Mastodon, and other rivals.
That decision garnered a wave of criticisms, including those from Musk’s past defenders and a former Twitter chief executive.
String of controversies
Musk, also a long-time user of Twitter, paid $44 billion for Twitter last October after dropping a court bid to get out of the purchase.
However, his time running the company has been marred with various controversies as he has attempted to boost its revenue, and settle on an approach to moderating content that balances the concerns of advertisers and a professed commitment to free speech.
Musk’s freewheeling decision-making strategies have also seen him announce in public and then quickly reverse significant decisions, including changes to the popular social media platform’s verification system and reinstatement of users previously banned for hate speech.
He is also facing controversies over decisions for some Twitter staff who have been on the receiving end of mass lay-offs, only to be rehired just days after being laid off.
After publishing the poll, there was this one user who offered to “run Twitter a bit,” to who Musk responded, saying, “you must like pain a lot.”
The Twitter CEO previously said he would step down
While the Twitter poll has a deadline, the billionaire has not set a timeline for when he would step down if the poll results say he should.
Last month, he told a Delaware court he did not intend to stay as CEO of the company, reportedly testifying that he expected “to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time.”
Nonetheless, in a reply to another user who commented on the poll, Musk said nobody “who can actually keep Twitter alive” wanted the job, so “there is no successor.”
