Elon Musk asks Twitter poll if he should stay as boss

Twitter’s owner Elon Musk is asking users of the social media platform to vote on his future as its chief executive.

In a poll to his 122 million followers, he tweeted: “Should I step down as head… I will abide by the results.”

The technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over Twitter.

He took control of the company in October in a $44bn ($36bn) deal after a legal battle.

By 10:30 GMT on Monday, more than 16 million people had voted in his poll and 58% had said yes to Mr Musk stepping down.

He posted the poll shortly after he was pictured at the World Cup final next to Jared Kushner, son-in-law and ex-special adviser to former US President Donald Trump.

In the past he has obeyed Twitter polls. He’s fond of quoting the phrase “vox populi, vox dei”, a Latin phrase which roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”.

Dan Ives, senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the BBC he believed the vote would “ultimately” lead to the “ending of Musk’s reign as chief executive of Twitter”.

There has been a flurry of controversial changes at Twitter since Mr Musk bought the social media site.

He has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter’s paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.

He has also been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.

The UN tweeted that media freedom is “not a toy”, while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.

Mr Ives said the last few weeks and months had been a “black eye for Musk and a black eye for Tesla” which he said was the “golden child” because it is where most of the billionaire’s wealth is.

“Twitter right now – it’s a quicksand situation and I think it’s gotten worse since Musk took over Twitter. It’s been a circus show,” he added.

“I think ultimately in the next 24 hours Musk will probably name a new temporary CEO of Twitter.”

After starting the poll, Mr Musk tweeted: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

He added later: “Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it.”

Mr Ives said he believed Mr Musk had realised he “cannot balance” being the boss of Twitter as well as his electric car company Tesla and space rocket firm SpaceX.

“The biggest problem is the more controversy he creates, advertisers leave and they run for the hills and that’s 90% of revenue for Twitter,” he added.

Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell, said investors at Tesla would be “closely watching” Mr Musk’s poll.

“Given how much of a distraction Musk’s tenure at Twitter has become, shareholders in the electric vehicle manufacturer will be breathing a big sigh of relief if he steps back from Twitter and gets back to the day job at Tesla,” he said.

“For someone who sets so much store by work ethic, Musk sure seems to spend a lot of time on social media. With Tesla shares having more than halved year-to-date, Musk needs to roll up his sleeves and get his main business back on the road.”

Musk’s electric car firm has fallen sharply in value, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand.

He received the backing of several investors to help get his purchase of the site over the line.

In May, it was reported the backers included massive firms such as Fidelity, which is known for managing retirement accounts, and Sequoia Capital, which has backed other technology firms Apple, Google and Airbnb.

Others are thought to include Binance chief founder Changpeng Zhao, Oracle co-founder and Mr Musk’s friend, Larry Ellison, sovereign wealth fund Qatar Holding and Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Mr Musk also announced on Twitter that major policy changes would be voted on in the future.

On Sunday, Twitter said it would shut down accounts solely designed to promote other social media platforms, however, the web page detailing the policy appears to no longer exist.