Twitter Poll: Elon Musk Should Step Down

By Staff, Agencies

An unofficial poll that Elon Musk commissioned said he should step down from the helm of the social network, a referendum that Musk promised to follow after broad criticism of his stewardship of the company.

The poll closed early Monday morning after twelve hours of voting, with 57.5% of more than 17 million responses calling Musk to step down. He said he would abide by the results, later adding “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

The billionaire and self-dubbed “Chief Twit” purchased the company for $44 billion in October and made himself chief executive. Since then, it has become a frequent subject of his tweets, and employees have said he’s been a regular presence at the company’s San Francisco headquarters.

But that has raised concerns among investors — particularly in Tesla — that the entrepreneur is stretched too thin. Some have questioned his effectiveness as CEO of two large technology companies, wondering whether he can effectively serve in both roles at once in addition to head of the rocket company SpaceX.

Adding fuel to the fire, Musk is known for running polls to affirm decisions he’s already made, perhaps most famously when he asked Twitter if he should sell off 10 percent of his stake in Tesla. Later, filings showed Musk had already adopted a trading plan, calling the poll at least partially into question.

Musk has made a rash of changes at Twitter, where he has said a chief priority is fixing the company’s code. He laid off approximately half the company’s 7,500 employees, issued an ultimatum mandating a hardcore culture that caused hundreds more to leave, and changed Twitter’s rules on the fly and by relying on polls — including reinstating former president Donald Trump.

It’s not immediately clear how much would change if Musk steps down as chief executive, considering he would still own the company, along with his co-investors.

Musk previously signaled that he didn’t plan to stay in charge of Twitter long term. He testified in Delaware court last month that he planned to find someone else to run Twitter and scale back his time at the company. He took the stand in response to a Tesla shareholder lawsuit, which argued that he was overpaid for his work in a 2018 compensation package from the automotive company, while he was splitting his time among several other companies.