Elon Musk

We'll send you a myFT Daily Digest email rounding up the latest Twitter Inc news every morning. Twitter users have voted for Elon Musk to step down as the ...

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. Compare Standard and Premium Digital For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital,

Mr Musk only took over the social media firm two months ago. It is unclear if or when the SpaceX and Tesla boss would hand over the day-to-day running of the ...

“Should I step down as head of Twitter? The billionaire’s reign as chief executive as well as the owner of Twitter has been turbulent. Elon Musk appears set to step down as the head of Twitter after users voting in a public poll run by the billionaire said they wanted him to step aside.

More than half of the 17.5 million respondents voted “yes” to Musk's Twitter question.

Musk said he never intended to be CEO of Tesla, and that he didn’t want to be chief executive of any other companies either, preferring to see himself as an engineer. Musk had to testify in Delaware’s Court of Chancery over a shareholder’s challenge to Musk’s potentially $55 billion compensation plan as CEO of the electric car company. [half of the workforce](https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-business-layoffs-c0334da78b3af9faf2f43cf3f6e52ffa), [axed contract content moderators](https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-misinformation-social-media-a469130efaebc8ed029a647a149c5049#:~:text=Twitter's%20new%20owner%20Elon%20Musk,were%20out%20of%20a%20job.) and [disbanded a council](https://apnews.com/article/elon-musk-twitter-inc-technology-business-a9b795e8050de12319b82b5dd7118cd7) of trust and safety advisors. Musk also said he expected an organizational restructuring of Twitter to be completed in the next week or so. His Twitter account was promptly suspended, and then restored, as Musk reversed the policy implemented just hours earlier. “Again, the suspension occurred with no warning, process or explanation — this time as our reporter merely sought comment from Musk for a story,” Buzbee said. Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms the company described as “prohibited.” He then took aim at journalists who were writing about the jet-tracking account, which can still be found on other social media sites, alleging that they were broadcasting “basically assassination coordinates.” Musk was questioned in court on Nov. Twitter gave no explanation for why the blacklist included some websites but not others such as Parler, TikTok or LinkedIn. The billionaire Tesla CEO Musk had attended the World Cup final Sunday in Qatar, where he opened the poll. After it closed 12 hours later, there was no immediate announcement from Twitter or Musk, who may be midflight on his way back to the U.S.

That photo tells us two things: firstly, Musk was standing beside Jared Kushner - the son-in-law of Donald Trump, the former US President whom Musk has tried, ...

Perhaps the future of this troubled firm lies not in the stars, but with feet firmly on solid ground. But perhaps he's now learning the hard way that social media, and the people who bring it to life, are not machines. Throw into that mix the unpredictability of Musk himself - and the ongoing risk that his next tweet could cause untold reputational damage and/or regulatory scrutiny. The finances are bleak according to Musk: he says Twitter is operating at a loss of $4m per day. After all, he put to the vote whether or not he should buy Twitter in the first place, when this entire circus began. It proves Musk was geographically in the vicinity of Saudi Arabia - home to Twitter's biggest investors.

A poll posted by Mr Musk has seen Twitter users call for him to step down as head of the social media site.

– December 19: Mr Musk says he will abide by a new poll in which he asks if he should step down as the head of Twitter. However, tweets about the new policy and a webpage linked to it are later deleted and Mr Musk apologises. He had also criticised the company’s app store fees and accused the company of hating free speech. Mr Trump had been banned since a pro-Trump mob attacked the US Capitol on January 6 2021 as Congress was poised to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. Mr Musk says staff who do not agree to this ultimatum will be let go. Then, in his first act as owner, Mr Musk sacks several top executives.

After being spotted relaxed at the World Cup with Jared Kushner, the Tesla CEO lost an online poll on whether he should stay on as Twitter boss.

Whoever replaces Musk will have to deal with the same problems. The big question, though, is whether Twitter can be saved by a competent administrator like Shotwell – or if it’s too tied up in US culture wars to be quietly and soundly managed. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson told reporters last week that he asked Shotwell if Twitter would be a “distraction”, and she said it wouldn’t. She joined in 2002, the same year Musk founded the company, and her job is still about carrying out his vision. He then suspended the accounts of some prominent journalists who reported on the furore, then banned any promotion of “third-party platforms”, after users began discussing where they would go when they left Twitter. But the damage appears to have been done.

The billionaire says only paid Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in future policy-related polls on the platform.

That led in turn to an exodus of some engaged users to other social networks, chiefly its decentralised competitor Mastodon, whose own account was banned for posting a link to the jet tracker’s account on the rival platform. His silence was finally broken when he responded with “Interesting” to multiple suggestions that the results of the poll were skewed by fake accounts. [told a Delaware judge](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/16/musk-twitter-reduce-time-handover) that he planned to reduce his time at Twitter and “find somebody else to run Twitter over time”. [after one poll in 2021](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1457064697782489088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1457066048944066565%7Ctwgr%5Ee47a790e3036bafe3c438bea0d85984c8812eba8%7Ctwcon%5Es2_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2021%2F11%2F06%2Felon-musk-is-using-a-twitter-poll-to-decide-the-future-of-his-tesla-stock.html), restoring Donald Trump’s account [after a second last month](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593767953706921985) and reinstating a number of suspended accounts [after a third](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1595473875847942146). That ban was rescinded by the end of the day, after a Twitter poll from the Twitter Safety account, with A decision to ban an account that tracked the location of his private jet last week was followed by

Twitter might not matter that much, but policymakers cannot ignore the implications of the CEO's behaviour.

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. Compare Standard and Premium Digital For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital,

Another user suggested that “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy-related polls”. Mr Musk responded by saying: “Good point. Twitter ...

On Sunday night, Mr Musk tweeted the poll and asked users: “Should I step down as head of Twitter? The dataset for this poll will contain most of them. We actually have skin in the game”. The result was confirmed with 57.5 per cent of the more than 17.5 million accounts that voted saying he should withdraw from his role. Since buying Twitter nearly two months ago, Mr Musk has talked a big game about democracy. Not everyone is criticising Elon Musk today. What is the driving force behind Mr Musk’s potential departure from Twitter? It is not immediately clear whether Mr Musk will relaunch the poll concerning his future leadership of Twitter and confine it only to paid subscribers, or whether this means that he does not plan to “abide by the results” of the initial poll as he said he would. “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. Twitter then reversed the policy within hours. Mr Musk responded by saying: “ Billionaire Elon Musk has said only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in future policy-related polls on the platform in his first comments since millions of users voted for him to step down as chief executive of the site.

Despite vowing to abide by the results of a poll asking if he should step down as Twitter CEO, Musk is now suggesting it was compromised by bots.

[independent council](https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2022/10/28/no-trump-tweets-yet-musk-says-diverse-council-will-consider-reversing-bans/?sh=13fccf3467a2) made up of experts and public figures with “widely diverse viewpoints.” Musk has reneged on this promise while positioning himself as the final arbiter of what kind of content Twitter should or should not allow. Musk also [blamed bots](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1593952814534991873) for his poll about restoring Trump’s account on Twitter being closer than he anticipated. Twitter would then use this rule to ban several high profile journalists—many of whom had been critical of Musk—while the billionaire accused them of “doxxing” him, prompting widespread backlash and threats of [sanctions](https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2022/12/16/european-union-official-warns-elon-musk-of-sanctions-over-twitter-banning-journalists/). Musk, who claims to be a “free-speech absolutist,” took over as Twitter CEO after completing his $44 billion acquisition of the company in late October. The billionaire, however, has been selective in blaming bots when it comes to polls, only bringing it up when results don’t align with his views on an issue. Musk has previously been criticized for relying on unscientific polls—which can easily be brigaded or manipulated by bots or fake accounts—to make important policy decisions at Twitter.

'Seat-of-the-pants' management of social media platform worries Microsoft co-founder.

For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. Compare Standard and Premium Digital For a full comparison of Standard and Premium Digital,

Musk was replying to internet entrepreneur and political activist Kim Dotcom on Twitter who said: “I'm hoping that Elon did this poll as a honeypot to catch all ...

The polls closed after 17,502,391 votes had been cast, with 57.5 per cent of respondents calling for Musk to step down. To add more fire to the fuel, Musk threatened to cut more than 50 per cent of Twitter’s staff in an attempt to ‘drain the swamp’ from the social media platform. Since taking over Twitter Since Musk took over Twitter in a $44b (£36b) acquisition in October, the Tesla founder has made it his mission to purge twitter of fake accounts and spam bots.

Twitter's billionaire owner seems set to follow Ford into the abyss.

General Motors, Ford, Volkswagen, and other big firms are set to enter the electric vehicle market with a combined total of 135 new models, and to begin large-scale production over the next two to three years. On Sunday, Musk was photographed at the World Cup in Qatar, standing in what appeared to be a stadium suite with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. After Musk acquired Twitter in October, he began [slashing the company’s workforce](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/15/technology/elon-musk-twitter-fired-criticism.html) — including firing employees who had dared to criticize him. Over the weekend, he briefly suspended the account of Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz after she tried to contact him for a story. A century after it was published, references to Ford’s book, “ Officials from the European Union have also warned that Twitter may face sanctions for failing to live up to the EU’s standards for press freedom. He has unblocked the Twitter accounts of Donald Trump and other right-wing extremists, and [ended enforcement](https://apnews.com/article/twitter-ends-covid-misinformation-policy-cc232c9ce0f193c505bbc63bf57ecad6) of the site’s Covid [misinformation policy](https://theintercept.com/2022/12/15/elon-musk-twitter-covid-vaccine-simone-gold/). [showcase his right-wing political agenda](https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/12/14/qanon-musk-revival-twitter/). By taking on the corporate giants of the auto industry and winning, Musk has succeeded where other flamboyant and egocentric entrepreneurs like John DeLorean, who briefly built the 1980s-era gull-winged car now mainly remembered for its time-traveling role in the movie “Back to the Future,” failed. Unfortunately, Elon Musk now seems grimly determined to walk Henry Ford’s path much further than he should, for after his spectacular early success, Ford turned very dark, very quickly. Ford dominated the car industry as a result; in the early 1920s, more than half the cars on the world’s roads were built by Ford. “I regard Henry Ford as my inspiration,” Hitler told the Detroit News in 1931.

Mr Musk launched a Twitter poll asking his followers if he should step down as chief executive - 57.5% voted "yes". Since then, he has not commented directly on ...

Tesla needs and deserves to have [a] working full time CEO," he tweeted. In response to a tweet saying Twitter Blue subscribers "should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls. Tesla shares have lost more than 60% in value this year, with some saying his obsession with Twitter is destroying the brand. He has also fired about half of Twitter's staff. One user claimed that so-called bots appeared to have voted heavily in the poll about Mr Musk's role at the firm. Bruce Daisley, former vice president of Twitter, compared any potential change to that of a football manager.

In this week's newsletter: Musk has a talent for trying to wiggle out of trouble on Twitter, only to land deeper in it – this time by asking users if he ...

But one thing that was not to blame was the metaverse. From Andrew Bosworth, the head of the company’s “reality labs” division: “We’ve shifted more of our resources on to a smaller number of high-priority growth areas,” [prior doxxing action](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604482428281753601)”: breaking a rule that hadn’t existed when she broke it, with tweets that were no longer live on the site. On Saturday, Musk suspended the account of Taylor Lorenz, a reporter at the Washington Post who had sent him a request for comment on the site. Late on Sunday night, in the wake of watching the World Cup final in Doha with Jared Kushner, Musk The fearful vision is it ends up more like Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid, the Sun, where a hands-off proprietor nonetheless picks a senior team who know that more important than any business goal is making sure the boss is satisfied. It is not a coincidence that the bans hit journalists who were critical of Musk. On the face of it, the rule would block people livetweeting football matches or pop concerts, but don’t think about it too much: the rule was imposed to ban the account, not the other way round. But even if the ban is overturned, a site-wide block on linking to Mastodon remains. According to Musk, the suspension was for “ [tweeted](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1589414958508691456) that his commitment to free speech extended even “to not banning the account following my plane”.

The billionaire, who has been at the helm of the social platform since October, said he would abide by the results of the poll. But he has not made any ...

He was one of the first tech leaders to embrace cryptocurrencies. Another member of the "PayPal Mafia", Mr Marcus is the former president of PayPal and is close to Mr Musk. He was also on the board of Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange platform. Mr Sacks was involved at the beginning of PayPal with Mr Musk and is a member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia" - a group of former executives of the firm who have become billionaires by founding some of Silicon Valley's most successful tech businesses. He had been serving as chief executive of both Twitter and payment firm Square and had been under pressure from investors, who felt Twitter was not getting the focus it needed while he was also running Square. She has been described as one of the "most highly regarded" executives in Silicon Valley with an "exceptionally rare mix of proven business skills, and authentic heart and soul". He lists pro wrestling as one of his interests and believes in "the importance of making a big entrance" - something that perhaps chimes with Mr Musk. He is one of the few to be included in Mr Musk's core team at Twitter. Technology investor and podcaster David Sacks is another one of the experienced names in Mr Musk's inner circle. "I invest and am interested in the intersection of consumer tech and crypto," he says on his website. The billionaire, who has been at the helm of the social platform since October, said he would abide by the results of the poll. Bob O'Donnell, from TECHnalysis Research, warned that trying to predict who might take over the social platform was a "pointless exercise because of how unpredictable and short-lived every decision" regarding Twitter has been in the Musk era.

Billionaire hints at rule changes for policy-related polls after millions of users urge him to leave the platform.

We will use the details you have shared to manage your newsletter subscription. We will use the details you have shared to manage your registration. You can find out more about our legitimate interest activity in our Privacy Policy.

Twitter owner and CEO Elon Musk is searching for a new CEO of the company, sources told CNBC's David Faber.

[Tesla](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA/) shares this year to finance the Twitter takeover. [posted an informal poll](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604617643973124097) Sunday asking Twitter users if he should step down as head of the company, and a majority of the 17 million respondents voted for Musk to leave his post. [his position as CEO would be temporary](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/16/elon-musk-says-he-doesnt-want-to-be-a-ceo-walks-back-sec-insults.html). [In court in November](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/16/elon-musk-says-he-doesnt-want-to-be-a-ceo-walks-back-sec-insults.html), Musk said, "I expect to reduce my time at Twitter and find somebody else to run Twitter over time." [Musk said](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1605079888821510144) "the United States has definitely been harmed" by having Warren as a senator. [Elizabeth Warren](https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-warren/), D-Mass., [wrote](https://www.warren.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2022.12.18%20Letter%20to%20Tesla%20Board%20on%20Musk%20Concerns.pdf) to the chair of [Tesla's](https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/TSLA/) board, Robyn Denholm, expressing concern that Musk and the board may have violated legal obligations to Tesla shareholders. Twitter polls are straw polls, which means they are not comparable to professional public opinion research. [massive staff cuts](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/04/twitter-sued-by-employees-after-mass-layoffs-begin.html), a [spike in racist hate speech](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/03/heres-how-elon-musk-can-prevent-racist-raids-on-twitter.html), [advertisers](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/01/ad-giant-ipg-advises-brands-to-pause-twitter-spending.html) fleeing or slashing their spending on the platform, as well as the reinstatement of previously banned accounts. He has also [pulled in talent from Tesla, SpaceX and the Boring Co.](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/12/08/spacex-tesla-and-boring-company-execs-helping-musk-at-twitter.html), including executives, engineers and attorneys, to assist him at Twitter. [that Twitter usage has reached an all-time high](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1603852159283445760) since he took over, and [that hate speech impressions have fallen](https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor). [he wrote](https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1604621101245419520?s=20&t=fARSGTWvPNFKhyH5QFjGfQ). [Elon Musk](https://www.cnbc.com/elon-musk/) is searching for a new chief executive of the company, sources told CNBC's David Faber.

A phone being held showing the twitter poll on screen, in a home in London. Elon Musk looks set to step down from the top job at Twitter after just two ...

Once they’ve been put in place, how much operational influence will Musk continue to have? What will the updated content moderation policies look like? [Tesla](/topic/tesla) case, Musk said he expected to find someone else to handle the day-to-day running of Twitter “over time”, but his apparent stubbornness over the poll result suggests he may not be planning to step aside just yet.

Elon Musk STILL refuses to say whether he'll honor Twitter poll and step down -as internet tycoon Kim Dotcom accuses government of hacking the vote: 'They have ...

Twitter has also said it would no longer work to combat Covid-19 disinformation. Twitter will make that change.' Replying to another user's suggestion that 'Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls', Musk said: 'Good point. Replying to another user's suggestion that 'Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy-related polls,' Musk said: 'Good point. Elon Musk has finally broken his silence after a Twitter poll recommended he stand down from the social media platform [Twitter Blue](/sciencetech/article-11528615/Twitter-relaunches-Twitter-Blue-8-month-iPhone-users-pay-more.html) subscribers will be able to vote in future policy-related polls on the platform, in his first comments since millions of users voted for him to resign as chief executive of the site.

Even if the multi-billionaire owner accepts his user poll and stands down, his machinations seem likely to ruin the company, says tech writer Sarah Manavis.

He has done this before: Musk ran a Twitter poll last year asking users if he should sell some of his Tesla stock, only for it to be revealed he had [already agreed to sell a portion](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/nov/11/elon-musk-sells-some-tesla-stock-but-was-it-really-because-of-twitter-poll) several days before posting the tweet. It feels fitting that the end of his tenure would come with a giant poll of his own making asking people to say whether they liked him or not. [Redundancies at Amazon](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/14/amazon-job-cuts-jeff-bezos-recession), after Jeff Bezos repeatedly blasted himself alongside various celebrities into space, have had a similar effect. As a result, advertisers have [fled the platform](https://www.engadget.com/twitter-losing-advertisers-boycott-193748977.html?guccounter=1), leading to “massive” drops in revenue. And it has now been decimated as a result of his ego. The past six weeks has solidified Musk as Twitter’s worst character, unmasking the desperation behind the trolling persona he has long projected. On Thursday and Friday, several of the most prominent journalists covering Musk [stale memes](https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/20/investing/elon-musk-bitcoin-dogecoin/index.html) and [tired jokes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/rachelsandler/2019/12/23/elon-musk-makes-weed-joke-after-tesla-stock-jumps-above-420/?sh=547679d0a62d), and his transparent desperation to be liked, [tanking his own stock price](https://www.cnbc.com/2020/05/01/tesla-ceo-elon-musk-says-stock-price-is-too-high-shares-fall.html) to delight his followers, Musk’s Twitter persona was infamous. But even if he isn’t in the CEO role, Musk will remain Twitter’s owner after he steps down, with a new chief executive of his choosing. There has been little respite from the chaos of Musk’s Twitter since he took over just under two months ago. [tinkered with core features](https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/nov/09/twitter-elon-musk-blue-check-verification) as if on a whim. He has fired employees and