Elon Musk Asks Users in Binding Poll Whether He Should Resign as Twitter CEO

Elon Musk (center), with Jared Kushner to his right, this Sunday at the Lusail stadium in Qatar during the World Cup final. CARL RECINE (REUTERS)

Twitter announced this Sunday that it will ban accounts that promote competing social networks, the company acquired by magnate Elon Musk announced this Sunday.

The measure caused such a viral reaction, and so virulent, that hours later, it was the founder of Tesla himself who published a poll of his followers and users on the platform on whether he should resign as CEO of Twitter, although without confirming that it exists. a cause-effect relationship between both movements.

The one who was the richest man in the world took advantage of Sunday to, in addition to attending the World Cup final in Qatar, set the networks on fire again.

The survey of his 122 million followers is for many the explicit recognition that he was wrong to prohibit the mention of other social networks on his platform.

Musk admits that he made a mistake this Sunday by launching new restrictions on users' freedom of expression, just three days after the uproar caused by the unilateral closure of the profiles of a dozen American journalists who, in the executive's opinion, were still his private life too intensely.

In the umpteenth change in usage policies, Twitter had announced early this Sunday that its users will no longer be able to link to Facebook or Instagram, owned by Meta, and to other platforms such as Mastodon or Truth Social, Donald Trump's social network. .

But the ban drew so much criticism, including from defenders of the billionaire, that Musk vowed not to adopt usage policy changes without prior user surveys.

While the network that he owns broadcast images of the tycoon in a grandstand at the Lusail stadium, together with Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law, the chief arsonist of Twitter turned the network back on with his apology: “My apologies.

It won't happen again, ”Musk tweeted, it is not known if about the previous announcement, before launching a new poll lasting 12 hours in which he wonders if he should resign at the helm of Twitter.

The query is “Should I continue to lead Twitter?

I will abide by the results of this poll," asks the billionaire, who then warns in another tweet: "As the proverb says, be careful what you wish for, because you may end up getting it."

Within 30 minutes of starting the survey, two million users had voted and 56% supported the resignation, a percentage that was consolidated two and a half hours later, with 57.5%, after just over 6.5 million had voted. of people.

If this trend continues, and Musk fulfills his promise, Tesla could once again have a CEO with absolute availability, a shareholder of the electric vehicle manufacturer commented on the social network.

“It would be a sign of relief,” the investor explained.

Twitter last week closed an account that followed the flights of Musk's private jet, and then the profiles of journalists who cover the information related to the tycoon, for alleged interference in his personal life, a decision that it quickly rectified due to the wave of criticism. received.

The suspension of the accounts of 10 professionals even provoked a response from the UN and the EU, which threatened sanctions, as well as associations in defense of press freedom.

Before reinstating the journalists, Musk launched another poll on the matter, a kind of virtual plebiscite that has been repeated frequently since he came to Twitter.

The frustrated ban on rival platforms included mainstream websites like Facebook and Instagram, but also emerging rivals to Twitter like Mastodon, which has seen the number of users skyrocket after Musk's landing on its social network;

Trump's Tribel, Nostr, Post and Truth Social, who by the way was rehabilitated on Twitter by the tycoon and, for now, has not threatened to return as a prodigal son.

Twitter gave no explanation as to why the blacklist included those websites and not others such as LinkedIn, the ultra-conservative forum Parler or the micro-video platform TikTok, in the crosshairs for whether it serves as a surveillance tool for China.

The image of Musk this Sunday in the Qatari stadium together with Trump's son-in-law also caused rivers of ink to flow on Twitter, due to the increasingly evident links of the magnate with the former president and a sector of the Republican Party.

Twitter earlier took steps to block links to one of its rivals, Mastodon, after its main Twitter account tweeted about the businessman's private jet controversy last week.

Mastodon has especially benefited from Twitter users unhappy with its breakneck transformation since Musk bought the company for $44 billion in late October and began restoring accounts that violated Twitter's previous leadership's rules against hate messages. .