Elon Musk should step down as Twitter chief, users declare in poll – National | 24CA News
More than half of 17.5 million customers who responded to a Twitter ballot created by billionaire Elon Musk over whether or not he ought to step down as head of the corporate had voted sure by the point the ballot closed Monday.
There was no rapid announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether or not that may occur, although Musk stated that he would abide by the outcomes. Musk attended the World Cup ultimate on Sunday and could also be midflight on his approach again to the U.S. early Monday.
Musk has taken plenty of unscientific polls on substantial points dealing with the social media platform, together with whether or not to reinstate journalists that he had suspended from Twitter, which was broadly criticized out and in of media circles.
Musk has clashed with some customers on a number of fronts and on Sunday, he requested Twitter customers to determine if he ought to stay in control of the social media platform after acknowledging he made a mistake in launching new speech restrictions that banned mentions of rival social media web sites on Twitter.
The outcomes of the unscientific on-line survey, which lasted 12 hours, confirmed that 57.5 per cent of those that voted wished him to depart, whereas the remaining 42.5 per cent wished him to say.
The newest ballot adopted one more important coverage change since Musk acquired Twitter in October. Twitter had introduced that customers will not be capable of hyperlink to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and different platforms the corporate described as “prohibited.”
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Elon Musk launches ballot asking if he ought to step down from Twitter
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That determination generated rapid blowback, together with criticism from previous defenders of Twitter’s new proprietor, that Musk promised to not make any extra main coverage modifications with out a web-based survey of customers.
The motion to dam opponents was Musk’s newest try and 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 comparable to Facebook and Instagram, and upstart rivals Mastodon, Tribel, Nostr, Post and former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social. Twitter gave no clarification for why the blacklist included these seven web sites however not others comparable to Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn.
A take a look at case was the outstanding enterprise capitalist Paul Graham, who previously 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.
Policy choices by Musk have divided customers. He has advocated without cost speech, however has suspended journalists and shut down a longstanding account that tracked the whereabouts of his jet, calling it a safety danger.
But he has modified insurance policies, after which modified them once more, created a way of confusion on the platform about what’s allowed, and what’s not.
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 concerning 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 a web-based ballot by Musk.
Then, over the weekend, The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz grew to become the most recent journalist to be briefly banned. She stated she was suspended after posting a message on Twitter tagging Musk and requesting an interview.
Sally Buzbee, The Washington Post’s govt 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.
“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 was questioned in court docket 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 probably $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electrical automobile firm.
Musk stated he by no means meant to be CEO of Tesla, and that he didn’t wish to be chief govt of some 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 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.
© 2022 The Canadian Press
