Elon Musk asked Twitter users if he should step down as CEO. They voted yes | 24CA News

More than half of 17.5 million customers who responded to a Twitter ballot that requested whether or not billionaire Elon Musk ought to step down as head of the social media platform voted Yes when the ballot closed on Monday.

There was no quick announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether or not that may occur, although he mentioned that he would abide by the outcomes.

Musk’s promise to let customers resolve his future position at Twitter via an unscientific on-line survey appeared to return out of nowhere Sunday, although he had additionally promised in November {that a} reorganization was occurring quickly. Musk additionally acknowledged on Sunday that he made a mistake in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media web sites.

In public banter with Twitter followers Sunday, Musk expressed pessimism concerning 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.

Blocking hyperlinks to different platforms

In one more important coverage change, Twitter had introduced that customers will not have the ability to hyperlink to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and different platforms the corporate described as “prohibited.”

But that call generated a lot quick 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 a web-based survey of customers.

The motion to dam opponents 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 personal jet.

The banned platforms included mainstream web sites similar to 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 similar to Onlyfans, Weibo, TikTok or LinkedIn, in addition to platforms favoured by conservatives similar to Gab, Gettr and Parler.

Twitter had mentioned it will no less than quickly droop accounts that embrace the banned web sites of their profile — a follow so widespread it will have been tough to implement the restrictions on Twitter’s hundreds of thousands of customers all over the world. Not solely hyperlinks however makes an attempt to bypass the ban by spelling out “instagram dot com” might have led to a suspension, the corporate mentioned.

A check case was the outstanding enterprise capitalist Paul Graham, who up to now has praised Musk however on Sunday instructed his 1.5 million Twitter followers that this was the “last straw” and to seek out him on Mastodon. His Twitter account was promptly suspended, and shortly after restored as Musk promised to reverse the coverage carried out simply hours earlier.

Musk mentioned Twitter will nonetheless droop some accounts based on the coverage however “only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors.”

Mastodon has grown quickly in current weeks in its place for Twitter customers who’re sad with Musk’s overhaul of Twitter since he purchased the corporate for $44 billion US in late October and started restoring accounts that ran afoul of the earlier Twitter management’s guidelines towards hateful conduct and different harms.

Week of latest, contentious edicts

Musk final week additionally took intention at journalists who have been writing concerning the jet-tracking account, which might nonetheless be discovered on different social media websites, alleging that they have been broadcasting “basically assassination co-ordinates.”

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 a web-based ballot by Musk.

Then, over the weekend, The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz turned the newest journalist to be quickly banned. She mentioned she was suspended after posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and requesting an interview.

Sally Buzbee, The Washington Post’s government editor, referred to 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.

Musk, 51, was questioned in courtroom on Nov. 16 about how he splits his time amongst Tesla and his different corporations, together with SpaceX and Twitter. Musk needed to testify in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s problem to Musk’s probably $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electrical automotive firm.

Musk mentioned he by no means meant to be CEO of Tesla, and that he did not wish to be chief government of some other corporations both, preferring to see himself as an engineer as an alternative. 

Tesla shares have already misplaced practically 60 per cent of their worth this yr, as, like different carmakers, it battles provide chain points and rising competitors within the EV area.

Shares have been up 4.8 per cent in premarket buying and selling after the Twitter outcomes turned last.