Elon Musk asked Twitter users on Sunday night if he should step down as head of the social media site. More than 17 million votes were cast, delivering a clear verdict: 57.5 percent said he should quit, in a Twitter “poll” that closed on Monday.
Mr. Musk had said that he would abide by the result of the vote. After the vote ended, there was no immediate response from Mr Musk on Twitter.
If he persists, Mr. Musk handed over the reins of the company he bought for $44 billion at the end of October. The turbulent weeks since then have been marked by mass layoffs at the company, declining ad sales, executive layoffs, and several high-profile user accounts being suspended for violations of newly invented policies.
On Sunday, Twitter announced a policy to prevent users from sharing links and usernames from other social platforms, such as Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon, and then apparently curtailed the same policy.
But for some users, including former supporters of Mr. Musk, the chaotic weekend was a breaking point.
Mr. Musk’s latest actions with Twitter were “the last straw,” Paul Graham, a founder of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator, tweeted on Sunday. Mr Graham had supported Mr Musk’s takeover, but on Sunday he wrote: ‘I give up. On my site you will find a link to my new Mastodon profile.” His account was briefly suspended.
Last week, Twitter suspended about two dozen accounts tracking private jet locations, including one that tracked Musk’s private jet. This justified the decision with a new policy that banned accounts if they shared someone else’s “live location.” The accounts of some journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other media outlets were also suspended last week, apparently under the same policy, then reinstated after Mr. Musk asked users if they could go back. Fifty-nine percent answered yes, in a Twitter “poll” with 3.7 million votes.
After asking users if he should stay on as CEO of Twitter, Musk said in another tweet, “No one wants the job that can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”
There are signs that Mr. Musk’s ownership and his focus on Twitter are getting in the way of his other business ventures. Since Mr. Musk took over Twitter, Tesla’s value has plummeted. The car company’s stock price was $225 on Oct. 27, the day Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter. On Friday, Tesla shares closed at $150.
Last week, Mr. Musk confessed to selling $3.6 billion worth of Tesla stock. This year, Mr. Musk has now sold $23 billion worth of Tesla stock, largely after he pledged in April to stop selling stock to fund his Twitter deal.
“Attention focused on Twitter instead of golden child Tesla has been another big problem for investors and is likely behind this poll result with many Musk loyalists wanting him to leave as CEO of Twitter,” Wedbush analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris wrote. Securities in a note published shortly before the Twitter vote closed.
Musk’s firing from Twitter would be a “major step forward,” they added, with the billionaire finally realizing there is “growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare that’s getting worse by the day.”
On Monday, Tesla shares were up about 5 percent in premarket trading to about $157.
