Elon Musk has taken to Twitter for the first time to address a poll he conducted on the platform that found users voted overwhelmingly in favor of him stepping down as Twitter’s chief executive.
The billionaire businessman had promised to “abide by” the results of the poll, which closed at about 6:20 a.m. ET time on Dec. 19, with final results showing that 57.5 percent voted in favor of Musk departing the role.
Replying to one Twitter user who questioned whether the result of the poll may have been shaped by fake accounts or bots on the platform, Musk responded: “Interesting.”
Very interesting when you compared the number of votes versus the number of likes on the tweets.
— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) December 19, 2022
Did bots brigade the Elon poll yesterday? @elonmusk https://t.co/kLnm540itw
In another tweet by a user who suggested that “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy-related polls,” Musk replied: “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”
Musk stopped short of directly speaking about the results of the poll and what his next actions will be. As the majority owner of the privately held company, Musk cannot be forced out of Twitter.
The businessman launched the Twitter poll asking whether he should “step down as head of Twitter” on Dec. 18, shortly after Twitter announced another new update to its policy; the latest since Musk took over in October.
Twitter Makes U-turn on New Policy
Under the new policy, Twitter said it would no longer allow for “free promotion” of certain social media platforms on the site via URL links. The third-party social media platforms included Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr, and Post.
However, Musk later relaxed the new policy amid public outcry.
During a discussion with Box CEO Aaron Levie and news and content organization The Quartering, who had denounced the new policy, Musk said it was “reasonable” that some Twitter users might want to link to their Instagram profiles to promote their own businesses and as such, the policy would be adjusted to suspending accounts only when that account’s primary purpose is to promote social media competitors of Twitter instead.
