After Twitter customers voted to oust Elon Musk as CEO, he needs to vary how polls work

December 20, 2022

However since a transparent majority of Twitter customers voted for Musk to step down as Twitter CEO in one other ballot on Sunday, Musk has remained conspicuously (and uncharacteristically) silent. Now, he seems to assume the issue is not him, however who will get to vote within the polls.

In a tweet Monday, roughly 12 hours after his CEO ballot ended, Musk urged that he would change how polling on Twitter works in order that solely those that pay for Twitter’s up to date subscription service can vote. After one Twitter consumer mentioned, “Blue subscribers ought to be the one ones that may vote in coverage associated polls,” Musk responded, “Good level. Twitter will make that change.”

Whereas it is unclear how he would limit voting to solely those that pay for the corporate’s subscription service, such a change might dramatically scale back the variety of Twitter customers who might vote in polls. It might additionally skew those that can vote to the customers who’re prepared to pay up for Twitter Blue, which incorporates the controversial paid verification characteristic Musk pushed to introduce. Musk’s Monday tweet instantly prompted comparisons to ballot taxes.

The incident is one more instance of the inconsistencies and chaos in Musk’s administration of Twitter since buying the corporate in October. After coming beneath fireplace this weekend for a controversial new coverage limiting customers from posting hyperlinks to rival platforms, Musk pledged to successfully crowdsource “main coverage adjustments” at Twitter by polling customers about them and shortly launched the ballot about whether or not he ought to stay as CEO.

Now, Musk seems to be ignoring the outcomes of the CEO ballot and seeking to overhaul how polls work with out first polling customers about what’s arguably one other “main coverage change.”

Musk’s ballot, and his restricted response to it thus far, might add to the rising uncertainty about his dedication to remaining Twitter’s CEO. Musk has confronted criticism from Twitter customers and advertisers for his resolution to eradicate a lot of the corporate’s workers, restore the accounts of quite a lot of incendiary customers, and the whiplash from seemingly speeding out new insurance policies and options solely to drag them later. The Tesla CEO can also be dealing with strain from the carmaker’s shareholders to discover a alternative at Twitter, after Tesla’s inventory has declined considerably this 12 months.

Musk has in a roundabout way commented on the consumer vote that he ought to step down from working Twitter. Musk mentioned final month that he expects to “scale back my time at Twitter, and discover anyone else to run Twitter, over time.” However in a tweet Sunday he mentioned: “Nobody needs the job who can truly hold Twitter alive. There is no such thing as a successor.”

CNBC reported Tuesday that Musk is “actively looking” for a brand new Twitter CEO, citing nameless sources. Twitter, which not too long ago minimize most of its public relations group, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Musk responded to the story on Twitter with two crying laughing emojis.

The obvious potential candidates for a brand new Twitter CEO are the Musk lieutenants who’ve been serving to to run the corporate since his takeover. The brief listing doubtless contains investor Jason Calacanis, Craft Ventures accomplice David Sacks and Sriram Krishnan, an Andreessen Horowitz basic accomplice centered on crypto and Twitter’s former client groups lead.

A spread of different wild card candidates have publicly supplied to tackle the job, together with former T-Cell CEO John Legere and rapper Snoop Dogg.