Billionaire Elon Musk has taken his unconventional leadership style to new levels since his purchase of Twitter, using polls on the social media platform to let the users decide on key policy decisions.
He may now have been voted out of his job as CEO of the company that he bought for $44 billion (€41.4 billion) in October.
On December 18, he tweeted a poll asking if he should stand down as Twitter’s CEO, claiming that he «will abide by the results of this poll».
The poll closed on Monday morning, and 57.5 per cent of the votes called for him to stand down.
«As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it,» he tweeted after putting up the poll. Musk is yet to comment on the result of the poll.
He has ignored results of polls he has run before, redoing ones that may not have had the result he wanted. This includes one poll on unsuspending accounts that he claimed had revealed his real-time location.
A number of those accounts were of journalists from the mainstream media, such as Donie O’Sullivan from CNN, who had tweeted an official LAPD statement regarding a tweet sent by Musk.
After tweeting the poll on standing down, Musk claimed “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.»
«The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive,» he added.
‘Free speech absolutist’
Musk is a self-declared «free speech absolutist,» making the issue one of the cornerstones of his philosophy as the boss of a social media network.
Upon taking over he reinstated banned accounts, including the account of former US president Donald Trump.
Musk has however faced accusations of hypocrisy, with a spate of bans for journalists and activists who have been critical of him personally.
Over the weekend, accounts and posts that shared links to competitor social networks started to get suspended and removed.
Following an immediate outcry, the official Twitter Support account deleted its tweets referring to the new policy.
Musk has since tweeted: «Policy will be adjusted to suspending accounts only when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors, which essentially falls under the no spam rule».
He apologised, saying in the future «there will be a vote for major policy changes».
The Tesla and SpaceX billionaire tried to back out of the deal to buy Twitter but was ultimately unsuccessful.
Our journalists are working on updating this story.