The major question swirling around the internet since December 18, is whether Elon Musk actually is stepping down as the CEO of Twitter. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter has received dissent since it first became official on October 27. However, the idea of Musk stepping down as Twitter’s CEO was more than just wishful thinking in recent days. The question was sprung because Musk himself vowed to step down based on the results of an exceedingly unsmart poll that he posted to Twitter on the 18th.
Musk used the Twitter poll feature to post a poll for anyone on Twitter to cast their vote. In the post, he asked users if he should “step down as head of Twitter.” He also stated that he would “abide” by whatever the poll’s results were. The final results of the poll saw that 57.5% of participants voted in favor of him stepping down as CEO, while only 42.5% of viewers voted against.
No one knows why he posted the poll in the first place. On the one hand, it seems he had to have known that there was no way the majority would vote in favor of him, given the intense backlash he has received since being instated as Twitter’s CEO. On the other hand, perhaps there’s a chance that he was trying to prove a point but failed miserably. Whatever the reason, the results were plain to see. The people spoke, and they voted Musk out, so is he going to keep his vow?
Elon Musk responds to poll results
The short answer is no. Musk isn’t leaving despite the results of his ridiculous poll. Following the final results of his poll, he posted an ambiguous comment, stating that he’d stay on until someone else was “foolish” enough to take the job.
His stipulation doesn’t really make much sense and wasn’t outlined in his initial post. He seems to be saying that he won’t resign unless he personally chooses someone to succeed him, even though that detail wasn’t given in the original poll. Mostly, he just seemed to be seeking pity and praise for being the only individual “foolish” and selfless enough to be burdened with running Twitter. He also indicated that, even if he did find a successor, he would still be a part of Twitter, running the “software and servers teams.” So, despite promising that he would abide by the results of the poll—he is not going to abide by the results of the poll.
Elon Musk wants to change who can vote on Twitter polls
Now, users weren’t wrong to hold some belief that he would actually stick to his word. Musk has used Twitter polls before and has stuck to the results of them. For example, he reinstated former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account after the majority voted in approval of this move. However, once the results of a poll pulled results he didn’t like, suddenly, Twitter polls weren’t effective anymore.
The day after posting his poll about stepping down, he claimed that only blue subscribers should be able to vote in Twitter polls, replying to the below tweet with: “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”
If this change were made, it would very likely produce biased results. It would only allow those who conformed to and paid for Musk’s controversial blue check mark subscription to vote. Musk grasped onto the allegations of another user, who suggested that his initial poll about stepping down was an experiment to weed out “bots” using the Twitter polling system. What seems much likelier is that his “poll” was an experiment to see what changes need to be made to Twitter to succeed in creating the illusion of support for his controversial takeover of the social media platform.
(featured image: Daniel Oberhaus/Flickr (CC BY 2.0))
