Elon Musk’s controversial time as CEO of Twitter will soon come to an end.
Musk purchased the social media site for $44 billion in October , after months of legal turmoil. Though Musk initially showed interest in buying the site earlier this year, he changed his mind months later. Still, he ended up going through with the deal.
Immediately after claiming ownership of Twitter, Musk fired its top executives, appointing himself as CEO. The past couple of months have been wrought with uncertainty for a large number of users.
Musk Asked Twitter Itself If He Should Step Down.
On Sunday, Musk launched a Twitter poll , allowing any user to vote as to whether or not he should resign as CEO. Over 17.5 million users voted for Musk’s fate, with 57.5% of the vote leaning toward his resignation.
42.5% of voters, meanwhile, felt that he should stay on.
In The End, Musk Was True To His Word.
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk wrote on Tuesday after the poll officially closed. “After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
According to Musk, finding a replacement CEO will prove to be a challenge, believing “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.” Last month, Musk laid off a large number of the site’s staff and claims that there’s a possibility it could go bankrupt in 2023.
He also confirmed on Tuesday that, going forward, only paid subscribers will be able to participate in polls that could change policy, the BBC reports . This happened after Musk responded to a Twitter user who claimed that the votes calling for his resignation were heavily influenced by “bot” accounts.
Musk’s Time As Twitter’s CEO Hasn’t Been Easy.
Musk has already made multiple attempts to add a paid subscription feature to Twitter, with the latest attempt rolling out last week. Users can pay for a blue check added to their username for the price of $8 per month, or $11 for Apple users. Previously, users could be awarded the blue check of authenticity for free.
Earlier this week, Musk also announced that Twitter users would be banned for attempting to use the platform to advertise other social media pages , such as Instagram or TikTok. After receiving backlash, he backpedaled, stating that only accounts whose sole purpose was to advertise rival platforms would be banned.
Musk’s venture as Twitter’s CEO has also seemingly negatively impacted Tesla, with its shares dropping by 65% throughout 2022.
Musk Was Recently Condemned By The United Nations And European Union For Banning Some Journalists.
Both the UN and the EU publicly condemned Musk for seemingly banning journalists from the platform “arbitrarily,” the BBC reports . According to Musk, though, he was banning certain journalists because they were doxing his real-time location, and not as an act of suppressing free speech.
