On Sunday, Elon Musk, the new owner and CEO of Twitter, conducted a poll among the social media platform’s users asking if he should resign as head of the company. The poll ended at 6:20 a.m. ET on Monday, with a majority of the 17 million respondents (57.5%) indicating that Musk should step down. The poll has now closed.
“Elon Musk, who recently purchased the company and became its CEO 50 days ago, has stated that there is no suitable successor for his position. Musk stated that he would respect the results of the poll, but it is uncertain if he will actually follow through with this. Tesla, another company owned by Musk, saw its shares increase by over 4% in premarket trading in the US on Monday. In a court appearance in November, Musk mentioned his intention to reduce his involvement with Twitter and find someone else to run the company. However, on Sunday, he tweeted that there is no viable successor for him at the social media platform, stating that the challenge is not finding a CEO, but rather finding one who can keep Twitter operational.
He said on Twitter that “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive” and that “there is no successor.” When another user expressed interest in the position, Musk responded by saying that they would have to invest their life savings in Twitter, which has been in financial trouble since May, and asked if they still wanted the job despite the challenges.
Musk has previously used Twitter polls to legitimize significant decisions, such as selling a portion of his Tesla shares following one poll in 2021, reinstating Donald Trump’s account after a second poll last month, and restoring several suspended accounts following a third poll. He tweeted “Vox Populi, Vox Dei” after the Trump poll.
It should be noted that Twitter polls are informal and not equivalent to professional public opinion research. In addition, malicious bots or fake accounts may be able to participate in Twitter polls. Musk’s poll on Sunday came after he faced online criticism for abruptly implementing changes to Twitter policies that affected users in the previous week. He had referred to himself as the “Chief Twit” on the platform.
