Elon Musk’s chaotic reign as the head of Twitter could soon come to an end – if Twitter users want it to.
The SpaceX and Tesla entrepreneur has promised to “abide by the results of the poll” after asking Twitter users if it was time for him to step down as boss of the troubled social media network.
Since Musk took the reins at the end of October, Twitter has laid off at least half of its workforce, launched a widely-derided premium service which enabled any user to buy one of the coveted “blue tick” verification badges and seen a massive surge in trolling and hate speech.
The new version of subscription service, Twitter Blue, allowed any user to be branded as “verified” if they paid a monthly fee of $8.
Almost as soon as it was introduced, it saw the launch of a slew of “parody” accounts that impersonated celebrities from The Pope to gaming giant Nintendo that all bore a blue tick marking them as genuine.
There are even dozens of “verified” Elon Musk accounts all tweeting satirical versions of the South African tech tycoon’s latest thoughts.
Alongside the comparatively trivial problem of being mocked by hundreds of the network’s users, Musk has had to cope with a serious legal issue after the FBI waded into a Twitter row about election fraud – leading to calls for an official US government investigation.
And at the same time Musk has lost his status as the world’s richest man. After spending some $44billion on the long-delayed purchase of Twitter, Musk lost the title to Bernard Arnault, who own luxury goods company LVMH.
A dramatic slide in the value of Tesla shares, came at the same time as a surge in the stock price of LVMH, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton, Tiffany, Tag Heuer, and Celine.
Musk’s poll – which like any Twitter poll is hardly scientific – ends at 11am this morning, December 19.
At time of writing, over 13 million Twitter users have voted, with just under 57% agreeing that he should step down.
One commenter, US journalist Lesley Podesta, said: “The idea that someone makes decisions on a company he bought for $44b by running a twitter poll is astonishing”.
Another Tweeter predicted: “Tomorrow everybody who voted yes will be permanently suspended.”
