Musk has been a full owner of Twitter since October 27 and has repeatedly sparked controversy as CEO, firing half his staff, reinstating far-right figures on the platform, suspending journalists and trying to charge for services that were previously free. .
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to accept the position!” Musk tweeted, saying that he will then just run software teams and servers on Twitter.
In the poll results released Monday, 57 percent of voters, or 10 million votes, favored Musk’s resignation just weeks after he took ownership of the company for $44 billion.
Musk has used Twitter polls to make other decisions about the platform, including the reinstatement of former US President Donald Trump’s account and other suspended users.
Earlier this week, he used a laughing emoji to ridicule a report that he was looking for someone to take over as head of Twitter, tweeting that “no one wants the job that can keep Twitter alive.”
Analysts have pointed out that the share price of his electric car company, Tesla, has plunged by a third since Musk took control of Twitter, and some suggest that Tesla’s board of directors was pressuring him to quit. his role on Twitter.
“Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said Tuesday.
In conversations with users after publishing his latest survey, Musk had renewed his warnings that the platform could be on the road to bankruptcy.
– Politics by survey? –
The unpredictable entrepreneur published his survey about his resignation shortly after trying to shake off another controversy.
On Sunday, Twitter users were told they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites.
But Musk appeared to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to suspending accounts only when that account’s “primary purpose is promotion of competitors.”
The attempted ban drew howls of disapproval and even puzzled Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had backed the Musk takeover.
Analyst Ives noted that “advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink, potentially on track to lose approximately $4 billion per year.”
Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced that he would charge $8 a month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to discontinue the “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing spate of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.
On November 4, when Musk said the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500 employees.
Musk also reinstated Trump’s account, though the former US president indicated he had no interest in the platform, saying Twitter would no longer function to combat COVID-19 misinformation.
In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining that some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he said could endanger his family.
Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated.
On Monday, the president of the European Parliament, Speaker Roberta Metsola, sent a letter to Musk inviting him to testify before the legislature, his spokeswoman said.
Parliament has no power to compel Musk to run, and his response was not immediately known.
AFP