‘I will abide by the results’: Musk launches poll asking if he should step down from Twitter
Elon Musk is asking Twitter’s customers to determine if he ought to keep in control of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake Sunday in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media web sites.
In one more drastic coverage change, Twitter had introduced that customers will not be capable to hyperlink to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and different platforms the corporate described as “prohibited.”
But the transfer generated a lot instant criticism, together with from previous defenders of Twitter’s new billionaire proprietor, that Musk promised to not make any extra main coverage adjustments with out an internet survey of customers.
“My apologies. Won’t happen again,” Musk tweeted, earlier than launching a brand new 12-hour ballot asking if he ought to step down as head of Twitter. “I’ll abide by the outcomes of this ballot.”
The motion to dam rivals was Musk’s newest try to crack down on sure speech after he shut down a Twitter account final week that was monitoring the flights of his non-public jet.
The banned platforms included mainstream web sites resembling Facebook and Instagram, and upstart rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social. Twitter gave no rationalization for why the blacklist included these seven web sites however not others resembling Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn.
Twitter had stated it will not less than quickly droop accounts that embrace the banned web sites of their profile — a observe so widespread it will have been troublesome to implement the restrictions on Twitter’s tens of millions of customers all over the world. Not solely hyperlinks however makes an attempt to bypass the ban by spelling out “instagram dot com” may have led to a suspension, the corporate stated.
A check case was the distinguished enterprise capitalist Paul Graham, who prior to now has praised Musk however on Sunday informed his 1.5 million Twitter followers that this was the “last straw” and to search out him on Mastodon. His Twitter account was promptly suspended, and shortly after restored as Musk promised to reverse the coverage applied simply hours earlier.
Musk stated Twitter will nonetheless droop some accounts in accordance with the coverage however “only when that account’s (asterisk)primary(asterisk) purpose is promotion of competitors.”
Twitter beforehand took motion to dam hyperlinks to Mastodon after its principal Twitter account tweeted in regards to the @ElonJet controversy final week. Mastodon has grown quickly in latest weeks instead for Twitter customers who’re sad with Musk’s overhaul of Twitter since he purchased the corporate for US$44 billion in late October and started restoring accounts that ran afoul of the earlier Twitter management’s guidelines towards hateful conduct and different harms.
Musk completely banned the @ElonJet account on Wednesday, then modified Twitter’s guidelines to ban the sharing of one other particular person’s present location with out their consent. He then took goal at journalists who have been writing in regards to the jet-tracking account, which might nonetheless be discovered on different social media websites, alleging that they have been broadcasting “basically assassination coordinates.”
He used that to justify Twitter’s strikes final week to droop the accounts of quite a few journalists who cowl the social media platform and Musk, amongst them reporters working for The New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Voice of America and different publications. Many of these accounts have been restored following an internet ballot by Musk.
Then, over the weekend, The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz grew to become the newest journalist to be quickly banned. She stated she was suspended after posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and requesting an interview.
Sally Buzbee, The Washington Post’s government editor, known as it an “arbitrary suspension of another Post journalist” that additional undermined Musk’s promise to run Twitter as a platform devoted to free speech.
“Again, the suspension occurred with no warning, process or explanation — this time as our reporter merely sought comment from Musk for a story,” Buzbee stated. By noon Sunday, Lorenz’s account was restored, as was the tweet she thought had triggered her suspension.
Musk’s promise to let customers determine his future function at Twitter by means of an unscientific on-line survey appeared to return out of nowhere Sunday, although he had additionally promised in November {that a} reorganization was taking place quickly.
Musk was questioned in courtroom on Nov. 16 about how he splits his time amongst Tesla and his different firms, together with SpaceX and Twitter. Musk needed to testify in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s problem to Musk’s doubtlessly US$55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electrical automotive firm.
Musk stated he by no means supposed to be CEO of Tesla, and that he didn’t wish to be chief government of every other firms both, preferring to see himself as an engineer as an alternative. Musk additionally stated he anticipated an organizational restructuring of Twitter to be accomplished within the subsequent week or so. It’s been greater than a month since he stated that.
In public banter with Twitter followers Sunday, Musk expressed pessimism in regards to the prospects for a brand new CEO, saying that particular person “must like pain a lot” to run an organization that “has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy.”
“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” Musk tweeted.
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AP author Brian P. D. Hannon contributed to this report.
