Twitter poll ends: Users seek Musk’s departure
No word yet if billionaire will step aside or who would replace him at Twitter helm
Millions of Twitter users asked Elon Musk to step down as the head of Twitter in a poll the billionaire created and promised to abide by. But by Monday afternoon there was no word on whether Musk would step aside or who the new leader might be.
Twitter has grown more chaotic and confusing under Musk’s leadership with rapidly vacillating policies that are issued, then withdrawn or changed.
Among those voting with the “go” camp almost certainly were Tesla investors who have grown tired of the 24/7 Twitter chaos they say has distracted the eccentric CEO from the electric car company, his main source of wealth.
Musk also used his Tesla stock to partially fund the acquisition of Twitter.
Shares of Tesla are down 35 percent since Musk took over Twitter on Oct. 27, costing investors billions. Tesla’s market value was over $1.1 trillion on April 1, the last trading day before Musk disclosed he was buying up Twitter shares. The company has since lost 58 percent of its value, at a time when rival auto makers are cutting in on Tesla’s dominant share of electric vehicle sales.
“This has been a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla’s stock, which continues to suffer in a brutal way since the Twitter soap opera began,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote Monday.
If Musk’s tenure ends, it would be a major positive for Tesla stock and a sign that Musk is “finally reading the room that has been growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare,” Ives wrote.
Musk attended the World Cup final Sunday in Qatar, where he opened the poll. Since the poll closed early Monday, Musk has been uncharacteristically silent on Twitter as he appeared to be flying back to the U.S.
Musk has taken a number of unscientific polls on substantial issues facing the social media platform, including whether to reinstate journalists he had suspended from Twitter, which was broadly criticized in and out of media circles.
The polls have only added to a growing sense of tumult on Twitter since Musk bought the company for $44 billion, potentially leaving the future direction of the company in the hands of its users.
Among those users are people recently reinstated on the platform under Musk, people who had been banned for racist and toxic posts, or who had spread misinformation.
Since buying Twitter, Musk has presided over a dizzying series of changes that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users.
He laid off half of the workforce, axed contract content moderators and disbanded a council of trust and safety advisors.
He also dropped enforcement of COVID-19 misinformation rules and called for criminal charges against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert.
Musk clashed with some users on multiple fronts, and on Sunday, he asked Twitter users to decide if he should remain in charge, acknowledging he made a mistake in launching new restrictions that banned the mention of rival social media websites.
The results of the online survey, which lasted 12 hours, showed that 57.5 percent of the 17.5 million respondents wanted him to leave, while 42.5 percent wanted him to stay.