MUSK SAYS HE WILL RETIRE AS TWITTER CEO ONCE A SUCCESSOR IS FOUND

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will leave as CEO of Twitter once a replacement is found, in apparent reaction to a survey he sponsored that indicated users wanted him to step down.

Elon Musk said Tuesday that he will leave as CEO of Twitter once a replacement is found, in apparent reaction to a survey he sponsored that indicated users wanted him to step down.

Musk has entirely controlled Twitter since October 27 and has regularly courted controversy as CEO, dismissing half of its employees, reinstating far-right individuals, suspending journalists, and attempting to charge for formerly free services.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted, saying he will then only run software and server teams at Twitter.

According to the survey findings released on Monday, 57 percent of voters, or 10 million ballots, supported Musk stepping down only weeks after acquiring the firm for $44 billion.

Musk has used Twitter polls to make other judgments on the site, including the reinstatement of former US President Donald Trump’s account and the accounts of other suspended users.

Earlier this week, he used a laughing emoji to mock a rumour that he was looking for someone to take over as Twitter’s CEO, tweeting that “no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive.”

Analysts have noted that the stock price of Musk’s electric car firm, Tesla, has dropped by one-third since Musk’s Twitter takeover, and some speculate that Tesla’s board was pressuring Musk to step down from his Twitter role.

“Finally a good step in the right direction to end this painful nightmare situation for Tesla investors,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tweeted on Tuesday.

Musk reiterated his fears that the platform may go bankrupt in interactions with users following the release of his latest survey.

POLLING FOR POLICY?

The erratic entrepreneur launched his resignation poll immediately after attempting to distance himself from yet another incident.

Twitter users were informed on Sunday that they will no longer be allowed to promote material from other social media sites.

Musk appeared to alter direction a few hours later, tweeting that the policy will be confined to removing accounts whose “primary purpose is promotion of competitors.”

The attempted ban sparked outrage and even amused Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey, who had supported Musk’s takeover.

According to analyst Ives, “advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly $4 billion per year.”

Musk claimed shortly after taking over the network that it would charge $8 per month to verify account users’ identity, but the “Twitter Blue” plan had to be suspended due to an embarrassing wave of false accounts. It was later relaunched.

Twitter lay off half of its 7,500-person workforce on November 4th, citing Musk’s claim that the firm was losing $4 million per day.

Musk also reactivated Trump’s account, despite the former US president’s expressed disinterest in the network, and said that Twitter will no longer seek to combat COVID-19 misinformation.

He recently suspended the accounts of many journalists after alleging that some had published data about his private jet’s activities, which he said may imperil his family.

Some of the suspended accounts have been reinstated since then.

According to her spokesman, the leader of the European Parliament, speaker Roberta Metsola, invited Musk to appear before the house on Monday.

The parliament has no authority to compel Musk to appear, and his reaction was not immediately available.