Elon Musk has launched a poll to find out if he should stay on as the boss of Twitter
Elon Musk submitted his future at the head of Twitter to a survey on the social network, promising to respect the choice of Internet users.
“Should I stop managing Twitter? “The billionaire asked on the social network from Sunday to Monday night.
“I will stand by the results of this inquiry,” he said.
One hour before the end of the survey, 57.4% of more than 16 million participants voted “yes”.
In an exchange with a Twitter user, Mr. Musk also confirmed that he has no designated successor.
He also responded to computer scientist Lex Friedman, who jokingly suggested buying Twitter’s dreams, indicating that the platform was “speeding toward bankruptcy.”
The survey was launched by Mr Musk shortly after the tempestuous entrepreneur announced that “major policy changes” on the social network would be regularly put to a vote.
The announcement followed widespread criticism of Twitter’s decision on Sunday to ban users from posting links to competing networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or Truth Social.
For example, it is forbidden to tweet: “Thank you for following me @Identifier on Instagram” indicated the platform.
These new rules have caused confusion among many users, including Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. “Why? he tweeted soberly.
Mr Musk confirmed his decision after some accounts, including those of investor Paul Graham, were suspended under the new policy.
Instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy is limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s ‘primary’ purpose is to promote competitors,” he tweeted.
Accounts suspended
The $44 billion acquisition of Tesla and SpaceX by the late October boss, Mr. Musk, a self-proclaimed champion of free speech, is far from unanimous in his Twitter moderation rules.
In recent days, he deleted the accounts of several American journalists, especially from CNN, New York Times and Washington Post newspapers, and then restored them, causing a reaction from the European Union and the United Nations. The vice president of the European Commission even threatened the entrepreneur with sanctions.
On Wednesday, the multibillionaire first suspended the @elonjet account that automatically reported the routes of his private jet, then the accounts of journalists who tweeted about the decision, accusing them of putting his family at risk.
These were restored on Saturday, but some said they would have to remove certain posts if they were to allow the platform to be used.
And on Saturday evening, Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter account was suspended for several hours.
“Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account,” the Washington Post technology reporter wrote on his blog.
His account was restored on Sunday and he tweeted at 12:38 (17:38 GMT).
Controversial decisions
Earlier in the day, Mr Musk said on Twitter that it was a “temporary suspension due to prior disclosure of personal information by this account”.
His tweet was a response to Eric Weinstein, managing director of Thiel Capital, an investment firm founded by Peter Thiel, an investor and supporter of former US President Donald Trump.
The journalist explained that he asked Mr. Musk via Twitter for an article he was writing because he could not reach him through traditional channels.
“At 20:30 (01:30 GMT) I tried to reach him on Twitter for comment,” he said, adding that he later “logged in (to Twitter) to see if he responded to our request” stopped”. “I have not received any information from the company regarding the reasons for my termination or the conditions I violated,” he said.
Mr Musk has taken some controversial steps since acquiring Twitter, restoring banned accounts including Mr Trump’s and cracking down on Covid-19 disinformation.
But it has also suspended the account of rapper Kanye West and refused to return to the platform of far-right assassin Alex Jones after several posts deemed anti-Semitic.
