News/Commentary

Results are in! Musk runs poll asking, ‘should I step down as head of Twitter?’ vows to ‘abide’

December 19, 2022 | | Print Article

Twitter CEO Elon Musk set the social media platform on fire Sunday when he posted a poll asking users whether he should resign and then promised to “abide by the results” following a turbulent week where he suspended and reinstated journalists and banned other leftists.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll,” Musk stunningly tweeted.

Currently, the “Yes” votes are outpacing the “No” votes with 57.6% voting that he resign and 42.4% voting that he stay on as CEO. One wonders how bots play into the poll and if it is wise to hinge the control of a massive company like Twitter on the whims of users. Reportedly, well over 13 million people have voted so far, according to the Daily Mail.

In another tweet, Musk stated, “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

Predictably, Musk’s detractors want him to step down and are fanning the flames on Twitter.

MSNBC analyst Tim O’Brien snarked that those who vote yes will have their accounts suspended.

Others who revel in the new Twitter, think he should stay put.

“No. You’re doing a good job. It’s a swamp in there & the cleanup process is messy. You’re serving a vital need in our country to expose the left’s Marxist apparatus to control minds, behavior, speech, and ideology. Few others – including politicians – are fighting this. Keep on,” Liz Wheeler, a conservative podcast host, tweeted in defense of Musk.

Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee who Musk reinstated after a ban, tweeted, “Public mistakes > private malice. Twitter has never been more fun or fair than it is now.”

Rapper Snoop Dogg ran his own poll, asking, “Should I run Twitter?” His followers are cringingly all for it.

“People voting yes do realize that Elon is still going to own Twitter, he’s just going to find someone to take on the day to day operations, but have say in everything, sooo your yes vote is meaningless,” USA Today sports writer Steve Rudden remarked.

MIT research scientist and podcast host Lex Fridman offered to take over Twitter from Musk on Sunday.

“Let me run Twitter for a bit,” Fridman offered. “No Salary. All in. Focus on great engineering and increasing the amount of love in the world. Just offering my help in the unlikely case it’s useful.”

“You must like a lot of pain,” Musk responded. “One catch: you have to invest your life savings in Twitter and it has been in the fast lane to bankruptcy since May. Still want the job?”

“Yes. We’ll turn it around,” Fridman replied.

The poll follows Musk announcing a policy that would ban the promotion of content from other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post from the social media platform. That move sent shockwaves through Twitter.

“Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post,” a now-deleted tweet that was issued from Twitter Support announced, according to Fox News.

Former Twitter CEO and founder Jack Dorsey criticized the move tweeting, “Why?”

In what appeared to be an apology of sorts, hours later Musk tweeted, “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

Musk also booted Washington Post writer Taylor Lorenz off Twitter on Saturday after she was accused of revealing the exact address of TikTok talent scout Ariadna Jacob in a 2020 article.

Less than 12 hours later he lifted the ban, “Temp suspension due to prior doxxing action by this account. Will be lifted shortly.”

After such a turbulent week, it will be interesting to see if Musk stays at the helm and what other dramas play out on Twitter this week. Whatever happens, the platform has never had better marketing.

UPDATE: The final results of the poll are in. Those that want Musk to resign have won the poll with 57.5% of the vote, defeating those that want him to stay with 42.5% of the vote. The ball is now in Musk’s court to determine who will lead Twitter.

Latest posts by Terresa Monroe-Hamilton (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles