Twitter users have spoken, and they want Elon Musk to step down as the head of the platform.
In a viral post created by Musk himself, the mogul asked the public whether he should “step down as the head of Twitter.” The poll which had over 17 million users chime in, ended early Monday morning with most of the population no longer wanting Musk in the big seat.
In the statement, Musk claimed he would abide by the results of the poll, which concluded with 57% of people voting yes and 42.5% not in favor.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Over the past few months, the public has been more than upset with the chaos on the platform. The latest includes a series of journalists, including Taylor Lorenz from the Washington Post, being permanently suspended from the platform for violating terms that never existed.
Musk was publicly criticized by many users and industry leaders in the tech space for a new controversial policy that banned links leading to other social media platforms.
Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
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The new policy, deleted less than 24 hours after made public, caused users like Lorenz to become booted from the platform without any knowledge to why.
Users online have chimed in stating the newly added policy banning links from other platform would make it a difficult user experience to abide by the platform rules and regualations.
In a comment to What’s Trending about cross-promoting other platforms, Lorenz stated, “You have to diversify your audience and sharing to other platforms is just growing across the internet.”
The policy was quickly struck down in a short period by Musk himself due to the backlash. Musk stated that “going forward,” he would poll Twitter’s users to let them decide on policy changes.
https://twitter.com/TaylorLorenz/status/1604559889585410048?s=20&t=jiTFfI4gXFrgTOpkE5wyfw
With the unpredictable events happening on Twitter, many are still skeptical of the platform’s future and if Musk will still remain in control. Recently, Musk engaged in a feud with Apple and spread a conspiracy theory about the violent attack on Paul Pelosi. Incidents like this have caused users to speak out on Twitter against the CEO, which have caused users in cases to be potentially suspended as well. Users wonder if these type of events will continue with a new lead at the helm of the business.
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Lorenz later went on to say, “even if he’s still not CEO it doesn’t matter. He’s still the one in charge. Whoever he puts in charge is going to do his bidding.”
Advertisers in the industry are still uncertain if Twitter will become a more brand safe platform to run on. Due to Musk’s changing rhetoric and policies, a vast majority of media has been cancelled since the takeover in October of 2022. Twitter is currently on track to lose $4 billion a year as of the mass exodus of advertising revenue.
Snoop Dogg even trolled the situation if they themselves should run the platform. Over two million users chimed in saying they were in favor of this potential change even if it was a joke.
Should I run Twitter ?
— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) December 19, 2022
As of this time, Musk denied that he has a new CEO in mind.
Shortly after Musk posted his latest poll, Jason Calacanis, one of Twitter’s investors who went in with Elon Musk, posted a poll of his own asking who should become Twitter’s next CEO.
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Musk tweeted. “The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.”
Musk has most recently sold billions of dollars in Tesla stock that he once owned himself. Some believe that this was done to potentially purchase Twitter. Due to this, Tesla stock crumbled and dipped nearly 11% throughout the course of a month.
“This has been a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla’s stock which continues to suffer in a brutal way since the Twitter soap opera began with brand deterioration related to Musk a real issue,” Ives said in a note to clients Monday.
As of this time it is unclear who will be running Twitter in the future.
