Elon Musk conducted a poll on Twitter: millions of subscribers asked him to step down as head of the social network

Elon Musk may step down as head of Twitter after almost 60% of users voted in a poll to fire him, reports Dailymail.

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More than 17,5 million people voted in a poll on whether Musk should step down as CEO of Twitter.

When the poll closed after 12 hours, the result was one of the richest people in the world rated negatively, with 57,5% of users saying they wanted him gone, which is more than 10 million users.

Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.

- Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022

By comparison, 42,5% voted for him to remain head of the website, equivalent to nearly 7,5 million users.

It is unclear who will replace him if he follows through on his threat to step down as boss.

On the subject: Elon Musk is preparing to test brain chips on people: one of them will be implanted by a billionaire

After conducting a live poll, Musk warned, "As they say, be careful what you wish for, because it might come true."

Before the poll closed, Musk, who changed his Twitter bio to "Chief Twit" after acquiring the site for $44 billion in October, added: "Those who want power deserve it least of all."

The move divided users on the website, with some gloating over his imminent departure before voting was even over.

Lynette Halfani Cox said: “Could anyone other than a white male billionaire like Elon Musk even consider running a big publicly polled business? The CEO of Twitter has been called 'eccentric', 'independent', 'genius', etc. But if a woman did this, she would be 'irrational' and would be fired immediately."

But the CEO's supporters said if he stepped down, his critics might regret it.

Colin Rugg wrote: "I have a feeling that Elon Musk has already chosen the CEO of Twitter, and this person will further piss off the rest."

Luke Rudkowski added: "Two hours before voting closes, he will announce a successor that will scare everyone."

Rapper Snoop Dogg jokingly ran his own poll asking his followers if he should replace Musk, asking "Should I rule Twitter?"

Ten hours later, 81,8% of the million people who voted in his poll said yes.

This poll was another dramatic moment in Twitter's troubles after Musk bought it. Paid blue check marks, inconsistent personnel decisions and many more reckless actions have put Musk in a precarious position.

In the last week alone, he has been criticized for blocking journalists who posted on the website the location of his private jet, and for imposing a block on Twitter accounts promoting Facebook and Instagram. Musk then quickly reversed those decisions.

And in November, he warned employees that the firm could go bankrupt. Just yesterday, Dec. 18, he said on the platform that Twitter has been "on the path to bankruptcy" since May.

Musk closed the account of Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz on Dec. 17 after she was accused of revealing the exact address of TikTok talent show star Ariadne Jacob in a 2020 article.

Lorenz confirmed that she was removed from the platform on the evening of December 17, but Musk said that in less than 12 hours he would remove the block from her.

“The temporary suspension due to the previous action on this account will be lifted shortly,” Musk wrote in response to a tweet about Lorenz’s ban.

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Last week, the head of Twitter also suspended journalists from the New York Times, Washington Post and Buzzfeed, accusing them of revealing his address.

On December 15, he banned a total of nine journalists after they reported on his decision to block an account that featured his use of a private jet.

Nine accounts were reinstated on the evening of December 17 after he asked his followers to vote on whether they should be reinstated or banned for a week, with users choosing the first option.

Musk said journalists released personal information about his exact whereabouts, but the journalists insisted they did not release his address or location.

On the evening of December 15, BuzzFeed News tech reporter Kathy Notopoulos hosted a discussion on Twitter Spaces, which Musk joined in.

“Everyone will be treated equally,” Musk said, defending his decision to suspend journalists’ accounts.

“They’re not special just because they’re journalists,” Musk said.

Shortly before the discussion, he tweeted: "They posted my exact real-time location, essentially coordinates, in direct violation of Twitter's terms."

On December 18, Musk abandoned Twitter's policy that all posts associated with competing social media platforms are deleted and accounts doing so are banned.

The decision came after Musk was challenged by the likes of Twitter founder Jack Dorsey and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Musk then posted a tweet from his account saying that the rules would be changed, writing: "Policy will be adjusted to only suspend accounts if that account's primary purpose is to promote competitors, which, according to essentially falls under the no-spam rule.”

Sites on the "banned social media" list include: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Post, and Nostr.
The fiasco began on December 18, when Twitter's help desk - the official page - posted three tweets outlining the new policy.

Under the new rules, posts promoting alternative social media platforms, either in tweets or profile bios, will be suspended or potentially removed.

The previously deleted and more restrictive tweets meant that any content linking to the banned social media site would be dealt with.

Twitter founder Dorsey, who initially backed Musk's purchase of Twitter, responded to a series of tweets with a simple question: "Why?"

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has publicly supported Balaji Srinivasan, whose account has been suspended under the new policy.

“This is bad policy and should be repealed,” Snowden said. Musk soon revealed that the account would be reinstated.

Musk has been posting so-called "Twitter files" in recent weeks, revealing how the site interacted with the US government before he bought the network. The first batch was linked to the Hunter Biden saga and efforts to remove his photos from the website.

In the second edition, published again by journalist Matt Tybee, it was revealed that the FBI had pressed the social media giant's executives to provide them with information on how they keep the internet safe.

The released emails show former Twitter "censor" Yoel Roth feared the FBI was breaking the law to help U.S. intelligence get involved in domestic operations after receiving inquiries from agent Elvis Chan. FBI officials even asked Twitter to identify the locations from which some of the accounts were operated, raising concerns that it was an attack on First Amendment freedom of speech.

The FBI responded to Tybee with a statement saying, "The FBI regularly engages with private sector entities to provide information pertaining to identified actors of malicious foreign influence, subversive, undeclared, clandestine, or criminal activity."

Since buying the website, Musk has hailed it as a bastion of free speech and has tried to entice people previously blocked from the website to return to it.

In November, he proposed to Donald Trump, who was banned from Twitter in January 2021 following the U.S. Capitol uprising.

Shortly after the Twitter acquisition, Musk announced that he had reinstated Trump's account, which had over 88,9 million followers at the time of its suspension.

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However, Trump turned down his offer, prompting a series of Musk posts in which he criticized him for refusing. One post included a photo of a monk labeled "Donald Trump" turning away from a woman with a Twitter logo posing provocatively in front of him, suggesting the former president was trying to resist the temptation to reunite.

Another image showed a disheveled character from Family Guy, also labeled "Donald Trump", being tempted by a bottle of pills labeled "His restored Twitter account."

As ForumDaily wrote earlier:

• October 28, American billionaire, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk, formally took over the acquired company microblogging Twitter after the completion of the purchase for $44 billion.
• Ilon Mask wanted to take money for a blue tick on Twitter.
• With the advent of paid ticks on Twitter, there was a boom in fake accounts: people began to copy the profiles of celebrities, including the new owner of the social network, Elon Musk, and write absurd tweets.
• After the innovations of the Mask many famous people and large companies took these changes with hostility and began deleting their Twitter accounts en masse and looking for alternatives. Also massively company employees quit.

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