Should Elon Musk remain the head of Twitter? Here’s what their employees say
Should Elon Musk leave Twitter? Anyway, that’s the question he posed to Internet users in a traditional poll he regularly uses. Most of the participants voted for the entrepreneur to leave the management of the social network on Monday. 57.5% of more than 17 million voters said they were in favor of the departure of Elon Musk, who promised to respect the result but did not immediately react. The billionaire posted on the social network from Sunday to Monday night, “Should I leave Twitter leadership?” “I will stand by the results of this inquiry,” he said. In an exchange with one of his Twitter followers, Elon Musk confirmed that he has no designated successor. He said in another post that the platform was “speeding toward bankruptcy.”
Since late October, the Tesla and SpaceX boss has sparked controversy by cutting half of Twitter’s workforce, restoring suspended accounts, suspending journalists’ accounts and launching a new paid subscription. “From the botched subscription plan to banning journalists to the daily political squabbles, it’s been a whirlwind of advertisers fleeing and Twitter widening its deficit,” notes Wedbush analyst Dan Ives. 4 billion dollars per year. Elon Musk is also under pressure from Tesla’s board to let go of Twitter and focus on the automaker, whose shares have fallen more than 33% since the social network’s acquisition, according to investment adviser Gary Black.
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Will the voice of Internet users be listened to?
“The numbers are hard to ignore,” tweeted Gary Black. The survey, initiated by Elon Musk, took place after the new decision of the social network, which caused great reactions. Twitter announced on Sunday that it will no longer be possible to post links to rival social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or Truth Social, Donald Trump’s social network. Now it is forbidden to tweet a message like “Thank you for following me on Instagram @ID”. These new rules have caused confusion among many users, including Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey. Elon Musk made the decision after suspending certain accounts under this new rule, including those of investor Paul Graham. He initially tweeted that instead of targeting individual tweets, the policy would be limited to “suspending accounts only when that account’s ‘primary’ purpose is to promote competitors.”
The tempestuous billionaire then claimed that “major political changes” on the social network would be subject to a systematic vote. Last week, Elon Musk deleted and then reinstated the accounts of several American journalists from CNN, the New York Times and, most notably, the Washington Post, prompting a reaction from the European Union and the United Nations. The vice president of the European Commission even threatened the entrepreneur with sanctions. The multi-billionaire first suspended his @elonjet account on Wednesday, which had automatically reported his private jet trips, and then suspended journalists who tweeted about the decision, accusing him of putting his family at risk. These were restored on Saturday, but some said they needed to delete certain posts if they wanted to fully use the platform.
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Washington Post journalist Taylor Lorenz’s Twitter account was also suspended for several hours on Saturday evening. The journalist covering the technology sector said in his blog that “Elon Musk suspended my Twitter account.” His account was restored on Sunday. After Elon Musk took the helm of Twitter, he restored many banned accounts, including Donald Trump’s account. It also ended the fight against disinformation related to Covid-19. On the other hand, he suspended the account of rapper Kanye West after the publication of several messages deemed anti-Semitic and refused to return to the platform of far-right assassin Alex Jones.
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