Twitter users have voted in favour of Elon Musk stepping down as the platform’s chief executive after the billionaire ran a poll on his future.
A total of 57.5% voted “yes” after Mr Musk asked his 122 million followers whether he should stand down.
Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn), said before the poll closed that he would abide by the result.
The technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.
Mr Musk is yet to comment since the poll closed. Even if he were to resign as chief executive, he would remain as Twitter’s owner.
More than 17.5 million users voted in his poll on Monday, with 42.5% voting no to Mr Musk stepping down.
In the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He’s fond of quoting the phrase “vox populi, vox dei”, a Latin phrase which roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022A former Twitter member of staff, who left the company recently, told the BBC that Mr Musk was “showing himself to be the incompetent fool we all knew he was”.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, they added: “His investors are surely looking at this now and questioning whether he was the right horse to back.
“I imagine he’s getting pressure from investors to step down and is using this poll to make it look like he’s following the will of the people instead of the will of those paying his bills.”
Minutes before the poll closed, the founder of crypto exchange Binance replied to Mr Musk saying he should “stay the course” and not step down.
Changpeng Zhao is thought to be one of several Twitter investors and said in May he had backed Mr Musk taking over by making a $500m investment.
Among the backers are massive firms such as Fidelity, which is known for managing retirement accounts, and Sequoia Capital, which has backed other technology firms Apple, Google and Airbnb.
Others are thought to be Oracle co-founder and Mr Musk’s friend, Larry Ellison, sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding, and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.
Mr Musk’s private jet appears to be on its way back from the World Cup in Qatar, where he was pictured at the final next to Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner on Sunday.
Dan Ives, senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the BBC before the poll closed that he believed the vote would ultimately lead to the ending of Mr Musk’s reign as Twitter chief executive, and that he would probably name a new temporary CEO “in the next 24 hours”.
There has been a flurry of controversial changes at Twitter since Mr Musk bought the social media site.
He has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter’s paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.
He has also been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.
On Friday, Mr Musk was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter’s decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.
The UN tweeted that media freedom is “not a toy”, while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.
After starting the poll, Mr Musk tweeted: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”
He added later: “Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it.”
Timeline: Musk’s turbulent Twitter takeover
‘Chief Twit’ takes control
27 October 2022
Musk completes his $44bn (£38.1bn) takeover of Twitter, immediately firing a number of the company’s top executives and tweeting “the bird is freed”.
Before officially taking charge of the company, Musk changed his Twitter profile to read “Chief Twit” and turned up to Twitter HQ in San Francisco carrying a sink, saying: “Let that sink in!”
Platform battles ‘trolling campaign’
29 October
After a surge in tweets containing racist language, Twitter’s head of trust and safety says: “Hateful conduct has no place here.” Yoel Roth says the company is taking action against users “involved in this trolling campaign” to make Twitter safe and welcoming for everyone.
Musk shares inaccurate story
30 October
Musk tweets an article containing a number of inaccuracies about an attack on the husband of US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi by a hammer-wielding intruder. The site has a history of publishing inaccurate stories and Musk later deletes the tweet after a backlash.
Trump return dismissed – for now
31 October
With just over a week to go before the US midterm elections, Musk responds to questions about whether he will reinstate former President Donald Trump’s account on Twitter by tweeting: “If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me if Trump is coming back on this platform, Twitter would be minting money!”
Image copyright by Getty Images
Later that day, Musk attended a halloween party in New York and posed for photographs wearing a “Devil’s champion” costume.
Criticism over subscription service
1 November
Following reports that Twitter will begin charging users to have verified accounts, Musk responds to criticism from author Stephen King by saying: “We need to pay the bills somehow!”.
Musk moves to cut staff numbers
4 November
Employees at the company begin receiving emails entitled “Your Role at Twitter” informing them whether they have lost their jobs. Responding to news about the layoffs, Musk says “unfortunately there is no choice when the company is losing over $4M/day”.
Yoel Roth, the head of trust and safety, said 50% of the company’s nearly 8,000 employees had been laid off but sought to reassure users and advertisers that the platform’s moderation capacity remained intact.
Twitter founder breaks silence
5 November
Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey breaks his silence over the Musk takeover to apologise to staff who have lost their jobs, saying: “I own the responsibility for why everyone is in this situation: I grew the company size too quickly.”
Crackdown on parody accounts
6 November
Musk announces that Twitter accounts impersonating people without being clearly labelled a parody will be permanently suspended – a change to the previous process when accounts were given a warning first.
A number of accounts that changed their name to “Elon Musk” and mocked the billionaire had already been suspended or placed behind a warning sign.
Warnings about Twitter’s survival
9 November
In his first email to Twitter staff, Musk warns that the “economic picture ahead is dire” and adds: “Without significant subscription revenue, there is a good chance Twitter will not survive the upcoming economic downturn.”
Meanwhile, after the launch of the $8-a-month Twitter Blue subscription, which gives paying users a blue tick, a slew of parody accounts that appear to be verified emerge, including a fake George W Bush account that tweets: “I miss killing Iraqis”. Within days, the service is paused.
Key staff leave company
10 November
More high-profile staff quit, including head of trust and safety Yoel Roth and chief security officer Lea Kissner.
Musk cuts down on contractors
12 November
Reports in US media say thousands of contractors who had been working for Twitter have had their contracts terminated. Technology news site Platformer says as many as 80% of its 5,500 contractor workforce were laid off in the move but the company made no official announcement.
Staff told: Be hardcore or leave
16 November
In a late-night email to all Twitter staff, Musk says employees must commit to a “hardcore” culture of working “long hours at high intensity” or leave the company.
Company offices abruptly closed
17 November
In a surprise announcement, Twitter says its company offices will be closed temporarily. The move comes amid reports that large numbers of Twitter staff had resigned.
Responding to fears the platform was about to shut down due to losing key staff, Musk tweeted: “The best people are staying, so I’m not super worried.”
Twitter Blue relaunched
12 December
The paid-for verification feature Twitter Blue is relaunched. It is still $8 per month – but Twitter cranks it up to $11 for those using the app on Apple devices. Musk says he resents the commission fee Apple charges on in-app purchases.
Suspensions for location ‘doxxing’
15 December
Musk says he is taking legal action against the holder of the @ElonJet Twitter account that tracks his private jet, claiming it put his son at risk.
He also suspends the accounts of reporters for the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, among others, saying they had shared his location.
After condemnation from the UN, a threat of sanctions from the European Union, and a Twitter poll, Musk lifts the suspension for the journalists’ accounts, saying “the people have spoken”. The @ElonJet account remains suspended.
Twitter users vote for Musk to step down
18 December
Twitter users voted in favour of Musk stepping down as its chief executive after he ran a poll on his future, promising he would “abide by the results”.
Millions voted, with a final total of 57.5% saying “yes”.Show more
Earlier on Sunday, Twitter said it would shut down accounts solely designed to promote other social media platforms.
However, Mr Musk later tweeted that major policy changes for the site would be voted on in the future. The web page detailing the policy towards other social media platforms appears to no longer exist.
Twitter ‘distraction’
Mr Ives said the last few weeks and months had been a “black eye for Musk and a black eye for Tesla”, which he said was the “golden child” because it is where most of the billionaire’s wealth is.
Mr Musk’s electric car firm has fallen sharply in value, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand.
Last week, Leo KoGuan, the third largest individual shareholder in Tesla, called for Mr Musk to step down as the boss of the electric car maker.
“Elon abandoned Tesla and Tesla has no working CEO. Tesla needs and deserves to have [a] working full time CEO,” he tweeted.
Mr Ives said he believed Mr Musk had realised he “cannot balance” being the boss of Twitter as well as his Tesla and space rocket firm SpaceX.
“The biggest problem is the more controversy he creates, advertisers leave and they run for the hills and that’s 90% of revenue for Twitter,” he said.
Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, added investors at Tesla would be “closely watching” Mr Musk’s poll.
“Given how much of a distraction Musk’s tenure at Twitter has become, shareholders in the electric vehicle manufacturer will be breathing a big sigh of relief if he steps back from Twitter and gets back to the day job at Tesla,” he said.
“For someone who sets so much store by work ethic, Musk sure seems to spend a lot of time on social media. With Tesla shares having more than halved year-to-date, Musk needs to roll up his sleeves and get his main business back on the road.”
Tesla’s share price rose nearly 3% at around $154 each on US stock markets in early trading on Monday. However, the have lost nearly 60% in value this year.
