It took over 40 hours, however Elon Musk has lastly acknowledged the outcomes of a public ballot he ran calling for him to step down as CEO of Twitter.
“I’ll resign as CEO as quickly as I discover somebody silly sufficient to take the job!” Musk tweeted on Tuesday night time. “After that, I’ll simply run the software program & servers groups.”
The admission comes after a ballot Musk himself launched, through which some 17 million Twitter customers — or 57.5 % of these polled — stated they had been in favor of Musk resigning. Musk didn’t instantly settle for the outcomes publicly, which he stated he’d do, however fairly solid doubt on the validity of the ballot.
It wasn’t simply nameless Twitter customers who needed Musk to step down. Outdoors buyers additionally called for Musk to focus much less on Twitter and extra on Tesla. They’ve seen the Twitter drama as one thing that distracted Musk from his extra profitable enterprise at Tesla, which noticed its stock price fall precipitously in latest weeks. Musk has lengthy stated he finally needed to step down as Twitter CEO, so it’s unclear why he appeared so unwilling to just accept the outcomes of the ballot calling for him to finish his chaotic reign as head of the corporate.
All that stated, the latest ballot debacle demonstrates Musk’s self-destructive attachment to working Twitter, even supposing it has jeopardized his fame and enterprise success since he took over in October. It’s additionally one other instance of how Musk can’t seem to handle criticism — from debating the share of individuals within the crowd who had been booing him at a comedy show to firing employees who criticized him, and now, dismissing the legitimacy of the Twitter customers who voted him out of the corporate he simply purchased.
Somewhat than commenting on the outcomes of the ballot within the hours after it concluded, Musk took to Twitter on Monday morning and inspired questions on whether or not the outcomes had been legit. He engaged in a Twitter thread by a person suggesting {that a} “deep state” bot military was rigging the ballot in opposition to him. Musk replied to a different person in the identical thread who advised that solely paid subscribers to Twitter Blue ought to be capable to vote in polls. He stated, “Twitter will make that change.”
Polls have been a well-liked tactic in Musk’s erratic management model for making main selections at Twitter. When he polled customers about whether or not Twitter ought to reinstate the account of former US President Donald Trump, for instance, Musk shortly accepted the outcomes that had been narrowly in favor of bringing Trump again on. Hours after the ballot closed, Musk tweeted that “the people have spoken” and reinstated Trump’s account.
This time, although, Musk dragged his ft. On Tuesday, Musk replied to a tweet by market analysis agency HarrisX, which carried out its personal ballot and located that 61 % of individuals needed Musk to remain on.
Fascinating. Recommend that perhaps we’d nonetheless have an itsy bitsy bot downside on Twitter …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 20, 2022
Musk had complained about Twitter bots since earlier than he purchased the platform. At the moment, he tried to make use of the platform’s bot downside as an excuse to get out of the deal. However since he took over, Musk stated he’s wiped Twitter of extreme bots. It was complicated, then, that he would run a ballot on Twitter concerning the destiny of his personal management if he didn’t have full confidence in its validity.
However once more, it was all the time a part of Musk’s plan to finally discover a alternative CEO for Twitter. In November, he told a Delaware court, “I count on to cut back my time at Twitter and discover any person else to run Twitter over time.”
A part of what appeared to be holding Musk again, nevertheless, is that he noticed no good alternative.
“Nobody desires the job who can truly hold Twitter alive. There is no such thing as a successor,” tweeted Musk on Sunday. Then, on Tuesday, he replied with laughing emojis at a recent NBC story reporting that he’s actively searching for a brand new CEO.
So after he created a man-made deadline to do one thing he already needed to do, Musk lastly appears able to take the subsequent step.
Replace, December 20, 10:10 pm ET: This story has been up to date to incorporate the newest details about Elon Musk’s plans to step down as CEO of Twitter.
