Twitter users overwhelmingly voted for Elon Musk to step down as CEO
The majority of participants in a poll launched by Elon Musk on Twitter voted on Monday for the entrepreneur to abandon the direction of the social network.
57.5% of the more than 17 million voters said they were in favor of removing Mr. Musk, who promised to respect the result but has yet to react.
“Should I leave Twitter management? “, asked the billionaire in the evening from Sunday to Monday on the social network. “I will stick to the results of this poll,” he promised.
In an exchange with one of his followers on Twitter, Mr. Musk has no designated successor. He said in another post that the platform was “on the fast track to bankruptcy.”
Since taking power at the end of October, the boss of Tesla and SpaceX has caused many controversies by firing half of Twitter’s workforce, restoring suspended accounts, suspending journalists and seeking to launch a new paid subscription.
“From the botched subscription plan to banning journalists from daily political controversies, it’s been a whirlwind as advertisers have fled, leaving Twitter to widen its deficit,” the analyst said. of Wedbush’s Dan Ives. Securities, estimating the company’s potential losses at $4 billion a year.
According to investment adviser Gary Black, Mr Musk is also under pressure from Tesla’s board of directors to let go of the Twitter reins and refocus on the automaker, whose stock has fallen more than 33% since beginning. social network acquisition.
“The numbers are hard to ignore,” tweeted Mr. Black.
The poll launched by Mr. Musk has “nothing to do with democracy,” tweeted Christophe Deloire, secretary general of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and president of the Information and Democracy Forum. “This is degree zero, even the opposite of democracy. Legitimacy cannot come from the vote of Internet users”.
This survey comes after a new decision by the social network that caused a lot of reaction.
– Misunderstanding of the new rules –
Twitter announced on Sunday that it will no longer be possible to post links to competing networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social network.
It is now forbidden to tweet a message like: “Thank you for following me @ID on Instagram”, indicated by the platform.
These new rules have sparked controversy among many users, including Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former boss of Twitter.
After several accounts were suspended under the new rule, including that of investor Paul Graham, Mr. Musk made his decision.
He initially tweeted that instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy is limited to “suspending accounts only when the +primary+ purpose of that account is promoting competitors.”
The stormy billionaire said that “fundamental political changes” in the social network will systematically be subject to a vote.
– Accounts suspended –
Last week, Mr. Musk then returned the accounts of several American journalists from CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post in particular, which caused the reaction of the European Union and the United Nations.
The Vice-President of the European Commission even threatened the businessman with sanctions, and the European Parliament asked him to come and testify before him.
The multi-billionaire first suspended @elonjet on Wednesday, an account that automatically reported his private jet trips, then journalists who tweeted about the decision, accusing them of putting his family at risk.
They were reinstated on Saturday, but some said they were told to remove certain posts if they wanted to use the platform more.
On Saturday night, the Twitter account of a Washington Post reporter, Taylor Lorenz, was suspended for several hours.
“Elon Musk has suspended my Twitter account,” said the journalist, who covers the technology sector, on his blog.
His account was restored on Sunday.
Since taking the reins of Twitter, Mr. Musk has many banned accounts, including Mr. Trump. He also ended the fight against misinformation related to Covid-19.
On the other hand, he suspended the account of the rapper Kanye West after the publication of several messages deemed anti-Semitic and denied the return to the platform of the far-right conspirator Alex Jones.
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