Twitter users yesterday voted to oust controversial owner Elon Musk as chief executive in a poll he organized and promised to honor, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant.
A total of 57.5 percent of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down.
Musk, who is also the boss of electric vehicle maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, had not responded.
Photo: AFP
He took over Twitter on Oct. 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, banning journalists and trying to charge for previously free services.
Analysts have also pointed out that the stock price of Tesla has slumped by one-third since the Twitter takeover.
“It’s hard to ignore the numbers since [the Twitter] deal closed,” investment expert Gary Black said, adding that he thought Tesla’s board was putting pressure on Musk to quit his Twitter role.
In discussions with users after posting his latest poll, Musk claimed he had no successor in mind and renewed his warnings that the platform could be heading for bankruptcy.
The unpredictable billionaire posted the poll shortly after trying to extricate himself from yet another controversy.
Twitter users on Sunday were told that they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites, but Musk seemed to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors.”
“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” he wrote.
The attempted ban had prompted howls of disapproval and even bemused Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who had backed Musk’s takeover.
He questioned the new policy with a one-word posting: “Why?”
Musk has generated a series of controversies in his short reign.
Analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush called his tenure a “perfect storm.”
He said that “advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly [US]$4 billion per year we estimate.”
Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced the site would charge US$8 a month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to suspend the “Twitter Blue” plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.
On Nov. 4, with Musk saying the company was losing US$4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500 employees.
At the weekend, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining that some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he claimed could endanger his family.
Employees of CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post were among those affected in a move that drew sharp criticism, including from the EU and the UN.
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