Elon Musk has launched another poll on Twitter, the social media platform he owns. He’s now asking his 122 million followers if he should step down as the tweeting boss.
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he concluded at the end of his tweet.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
Just an hour and a half after the poll launched, more than 4.3 million people voted either ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ By 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, nearly 58 percent voted “yes.” There were 10 hours remaining in the poll, which will end around 6:15 a.m. ET.
Musk later tweeted, “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”
No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2022
It’s not uncommon for Musk to poll his followers. Probably one of his most followed polls was exactly a month ago when he asked whether or not former President Donald Trump should be reinstated to Twitter. More than 15 million Twitter users voted, with nearly 58 percent of them voting “yes” to have Trump back on the platform. Six minutes after the poll closed, Musk tweeted that Trump had been reinstated.
Trump’s Twitter account and many of his other social media accounts were banned after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection by his supporters at the U.S. Capitol. Social media platforms like Twitter suggested Trump incited the riots that resulted in several deaths. Although Musk reopened Trump’s account, the former president hasn’t used it, but stuck to his Truth Social account for posting his opinions.
Photo by Nathan Stirk/Getty Images
Musk purchased Twitter in October 2022 for approximately $44 billion and vowed to make it a free speech platform for everyone. Now, Musk is coming under fire from both conservatives and liberals as he began suspending journalists from his platform – which is privately-owned.
Musk insinuated, in a tweet, that some accounts violated Twitter’s new terms of service regarding “doxxing”—disclosing someone’s personal details online. This happened after he permanently banned the account @ElonJet, which tracks to location of Musk’s private jet.
“Musk is accusing the now-banned journalists at CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post of posting what he says amounts to ‘assassination coordinates’ on him,” CNN reporter Oliver Darcy tweeted. “Of course, this is not what those journalists did.”
This also happens while the “Twitter files” are getting posted online. These are accusations that Twitter coerced with the FBI during the 2020 Presidential Election to silence conservatives.
Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz tweeted the FBI “has a lot to answer for.”
“@FBI has a lot to answer for after the latest drop of #TwitterFiles6 @Jim_Jordan @RepMikeJohnson @RepAndyBiggsAZ @RepDanBishop and I will be asking the questions.
“Clear your calendar,” Gaetz stated.
Newsweek reached out to Twitter for comment.
