Elon Musk Wants Twitter Users To Determine His Future At The Company
To say that Elon Musk's reign as Twitter CEO has been chaotic would be an understatement.
After jumping through hoops to acquire ownership of the popular social media website, the richest man in the world has seemingly been trying to burn it to the ground. For one, he managed to axe thousands of employees within weeks of becoming Twitter's "Chief Twit" in an attempt to boost the company's profitability. For another, he also introduced drastic changes to the platform, including charging users for a verified checkmark, unsuspending accounts that had been rightfully banned in the past, and forming what he calls a "content moderation council."
Unsurprisingly, many expressed dissatisfaction over Musk's questionable decisions, and it's not just exclusively Twitter users. He drove away advertisers, too. Per Media Matters for America, the site lost 50 of its top advertisers, all of whom have spent a collective $2 billion since 2020 — and $750 million this year alone.
With Twitter up in flames, Musk took to his social media site to ask if he should still remain as CEO.
Twitter users will decide Elon Musk's future as CEO
In a move that's not uncharacteristic of Elon Musk, the Tesla founder asked his Twitter followers if he should continue being the CEO of the company he gambled billions of dollars on.
On December 18, he tweeted one burning question: "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll." He followed up with a vague tweet, saying, "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it." Nearly 10 million users have voted as of this writing, with 56% of voters urging him to give up his post. Many also bombarded the comments section with their opinion. "I think Musk wants to step down to save his $44 billion investment – and pretend to be magnanimous by following popular opinion," one user opined. "Yes. This is not your comparative advantage. Make electric cars and tunnels and space flights instead!" said another.
Putting up a poll on Twitter to decide your future as CEO may be odd, but Musk has already expressed his desire to step down in the past. During his testimony in the Tesla shareholder lawsuit in November, Musk reportedly revealed that he's planning on handing the site's reins to someone else in the foreseeable future. "I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time," he shared at the time (via The Wall Street Journal). It looks like he's fulfilling that promise now.