Elon Musk announced Tuesday he will step down as Twitter CEO, following the result of a poll he conducted on Sunday.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” he said.
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
The Tesla and SpaceX CEO had on Sunday, conducted an informal poll where he asked Twitter users if he should step down as the head of the social media company. With majority (57.5%) of the 17 million respondents voted yes, Musk has begun looking for his replacement.
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The Boring company founder has relied on polls to make some decisions since he took over Twitter. He said on Sunday that he will abide by the result of the poll. The entrepreneur said that “going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes.”
Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of Twitter has been rocky, enveloped by controversies that have been dominated by free speech. The billionaire has introduced changes to the social media company that his critics have described as absurd.
From sacking more than 50% of Twitter’s workforce, including the content moderation team, to reinstating many suspended accounts, including former US President Donald Trump, to charging $8 fee for verification tick, Musk’s style of running Twitter has not been acceptable to many, including advertisers.
Critics have alleged that his style of leadership has resulted in spike of racist hate speech, especially anti-Semitism. Although Musk has repeatedly claimed that hate speech has significantly dropped and “Twitter usage” (by real humans) has reached “all-time highs”, advertisers have left the platform in droves while those who remain have cut their ad spending.
The call for Musk to step down has been on as early as he took over Twitter. Investment advisor, Gary Black, asked Musk on Tuesday to look within the social media space in his search for a replacement.
“Elon – please focus on seasoned media executives who are passionate about advertising AND technology. There are plenty of people from $DIS, $META, $GOOGL with all the requisite skills and foolish enough to take the job. How about Bret Taylor?” he said.
Musk has been accused of running Twitter all the way a social media company shouldn’t be run, with the layoff of the majority of the platform’s key staff as a typical example.
Besides how his actions affect Twitter, Musk’s other companies, particularly Tesla and SpaceX, have been at the receiving end of his romance with the social media company. Tesla has lost over 60% of its market value since Musk made his bid to acquire Twitter, prompting complaints from the electric vehicle company’s shareholders.
Musk has sold billions of dollars worth of Tesla shares this year to finance the Twitter acquisition, a development shareholders believe is affecting the auto firm market performance. Following the cut of Twitter staff, he pulled in talent from Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Co., including executives, engineers and attorneys, to assist him at Twitter.
Besides Tesla shareholders, people in government have expressed concern about Musk’s Twitter business. On Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to the chair of Tesla’s board, Robyn Denholm, expressing concern that Musk and the board may have violated legal obligations to Tesla shareholders, per CNBC.
Warren had asked the board to answer specific questions about the alleged misappropriation of Tesla resources and conflicts of interest resulting from Musk’s purchase of Twitter.
Also, NBC News reported earlier this month that NASA Administrator Bill Nelson asked SpaceX President and COO Gwynne Shotwell whether Musk’s “distraction” at Twitter might affect SpaceX’s work with the space agency. Though Nelson said she reassured him it would not, the query underscores the facets of growing concerns over Musk’s position as Twitter CEO.
Musk, at the end of the Sunday poll, removed “Chief Twit”, a title he had added upon the completion of Twitter acquisition, from his bio.