A Twitter poll created by Elon Musk asking whether he should “step down as head of Twitter” ended early Monday morning with most respondents voting in the affirmative, with 57 percent voting yes, 43 percent voting no. Musk had said he would abide by the results of the poll.
More than 17 million votes were cast in the informal referendum on his chaotic leadership of Twitter, which has been marked by mass layoffs, the re-platforming of suspended accounts that had violated Twitter’s rules, the suspension of journalists who cover him and whiplash policy changes made and reversed in real-time.
The results of the poll come at a time when its business faces renewed challenges. Since Musk completed his acquisition of Twitter in October, a number of brands have paused advertising on the platform.
Musk denied that he has a new CEO in mind.
Musk has sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla stock, most likely to pay for his purchase of Twitter. That has sent Tesla’s stock sinking 11 percent over the past month. But Tesla shares were up 5 percent in premarket trading after the poll results were revealed.
With or without the CEO title, however, Musk will almost certainly continue to control the company’s direction.
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