KUALA LUMPUR – Weeks after he took charge of Twitter, controversial billionaire Elon Musk says he will resign as its CEO as soon as he can find a replacement.
This comes after a poll he conducted on Twitter where 57.5% of more than 17 million accounts voted for him to step down.
In a tweet this morning, Musk said: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
Musk also runs car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX.
Before his poll closed, he had said: “The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.”
In a response to another tweet, he added: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”
In discussions with users after posting his latest poll, he renewed his warnings that the platform could be heading for bankruptcy.
Musk has fully owned Twitter since October 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, suspending journalists, and trying to charge for previously free services.
Last Sunday, Twitter users were told they would no longer be able to promote content from other social media sites.
But Musk seemed to reverse course a few hours later, writing that the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s ‘primary’ purpose is the promotion of competitors”.
Shortly after taking over the platform, he announced it would charge US$8 (RM35.50) per month to verify account holders’ identities, but had to suspend the Twitter Blue plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts. It has since been relaunched.
On November 4, with Musk saying the company was losing US$4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500-strong staff.
In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he claimed could endanger his family.
Employees of CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post were among those affected in a move that drew sharp criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.
Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated. – The Vibes, December 21, 2022
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