Elon Musk, who recently took over as Twitter CEO, may soon be leaving the position after barely two months on the job.
On December 18, Musk posted a poll on his verified account, asking his followers to decide whether or not he should step down as Twitter’s CEO. Musk also promised to follow the poll’s results. He tweeted:
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
As of Monday morning, 56.3% of the respondents said he should indeed step down, with only 43.7% voting no. There is no gainsaying that among those who voted for him to step down are disgruntled Twitter users who are unhappy with some of the policies he has implemented since taking over ownership of the platform.
Elon Musk controversies:Â The billionaire Tesla owner has been embroiled in some controversies on the “blue app” since purchasing Twitter and taking over as CEO in late October.
After Twitter was sold to Musk for $44 billion, he started making some contentious changes to the company’s policies and staff. Recall that he fired half of the company’s employees and announced an end to remote work.
The remaining employees were also given the choice to work “extremely hard” or leave. The condition led to hundreds of workers resigning. Employees who openly disagreed with the new CEO’s policies or tweets were fired.
Controversial Twitter Blue:Â Musk then revealed a new strategy to make the social media platform’s verification badge more lucrative, which caused a stir among Twitter users. He initially suggested a $20 monthly “blue badge” subscription fee, which he later reduced to $8.
He frequently altered Twitter’s policies without prior notice or by executive fiat, and he also banned users who disobeyed his new regulations. Following a heated argument with the host of a Twitter Space he attended, Musk recently disabled the Twitter Space feature from the app.
However, the company asserted that Space was shut down due to a minor error. After user complaints, it was later restored.
Musk’s travails: Nairametrics earlier reported Musk lost his title as the richest man in the world to French businessman Benard Arnault, the owner of fashion giant LVMH.
This followed a 50% drop in Tesla’s stock. Elon Musk’s wealth, mostly tied to Tesla stock, was propelled by a meteoric rise in the electric carmaker’s share price, which rocketed more than 1,000% in two years.