Merve Berker
19 December 2022•Update: 20 December 2022
ANKARA
After less than two months of Elon Musk leading Twitter, the public is hungry for change, according to a survey commissioned by the controversial billionaire.
In a 12-hour online survey, 57.5% of people said Musk should step down as Twitter CEO. Musk, 51, who has been regularly posting and citing online polls for his decisions steering the social media giant, pledged when posting the new poll that he would do what the people want.
Musk on Sunday launched a poll with a question about his future at the social media platform. “Should I step down as head of Twitter?” he asked, questioning if he should stay at the helm of the company, which he took over earlier this year in a high-profile $44 billion deal, or leave it.
“I will abide by the results of this poll,” he added.
Over 17.5 million votes were cast across the world, with a clear majority of 57.5% saying yes, versus only 42.5% saying no, according to the results the billionaire announced on Monday.
The poll did not offer a “not sure/don’t know” third option, and the accuracy of such online polls has been questioned, but the results seem to offer Musk a way to gracefully exit a troubled tenure heading Twitter.
Musk posted the poll after saying he made a mistake by enacting new restrictions that banned mentions of competing social media websites such as Mastadon and Instagram.
Due to the controversy and backlash over the new restrictions, Musk had promised not to make any additional major policy changes until he got the results of the survey.
"My apologies. Won't happen again," he tweeted shortly before launching his 12-hour poll.
"As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it," he added.
The poll also followed Musk's swift and apparently erratic decisions to ban and un-ban several reporters from the platform, several of whom were his critics, as well as firing about half of Twitter’s staff and other tumultuous moves that left many questioning if the popular service had any future ahead of it, at least under the current leadership.
