Scott Olson
Updated to add Twitter’s decision to ban the promotion of rival social media sites.
Billionaire Elon Musk started a poll on Twitter (TWTR) on Sunday, asking its users if he should step down as the social media giant’s chief executive.
“Should I step down as the head of Twitter?” Musk asked hundreds of millions of Twitter users, noting, “I will abide by the results of this poll.” With 10 hours left for polls to close, more than 5.8M had responded, with 58% saying “Yes.”
It is unclear whether Musk has succession planning in mind for Twitter if users vote him out. In October, Musk, the world’s richest man until recently, completed his $44B acquisition of Twitter (TWTR), leading to the immediate resignations of its then Chief Executive Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal.
Musk also said in a follow-up tweet that “there will be a vote for major policy changes” at the company in the future. “My apologies. Won’t happen again,” he added amid uproar over Twitter’s decision to suspend some journalists from the social media platform.
However, Elon Musk later reinstated the accounts of several journalists, including those from the New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post.
The poll comes days after Tesla (TSLA) shares reached a 52-week low amid investor concerns over Musk’s Twitter (TWTR) distraction. On Friday, media reports indicated that Musk reached out to one of the automaker’s investors, seeking additional funds for the deal.
Meanwhile, in a significant policy shift, Twitter (TWTR) announced Sunday it would no longer allow users to promote their accounts on at least seven other major social media sites, including Facebook and Instagram of Meta Platforms (META).
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” Twitter Support said.
“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post.”
Notable exceptions include Reddit, WhatsApp, WeChat, Weibo, Twitch, Telegram, Parler, and Gab. The policy also left out the popular social media site TikTok which comes under the Chinese company ByteDance (BDNCE).
Trump SPAC Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) is an investment vehicle planning to take former President Donald Trump’s social media company and Truth Social app public.
