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Elon Musk’s time as CEO of Twitter has come to an finish. The billionaire introduced his formal plans to step down in a tweet on Dec. 20. “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams,” his tweet learn. The Tesla CEO began operating the social media platform after finalizing a deal to purchase the corporate in October.
I’ll resign as CEO as quickly as I discover somebody silly sufficient to take the job! After that, I’ll simply run the software program & servers groups.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Elon’s determination to step down got here after he ran a Twitter ballot asking whether or not customers on the platform would really like him to remain in his place on December 18. “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of the poll,” he wrote. The ballot obtained over 17.5 million votes, and after it was closed 57.5 p.c of members mentioned that he ought to surrender the place.
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I’ll abide by the outcomes of this ballot.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
The ballot was run after the positioning applied a coverage that may forestall customers from posting hyperlinks to different social platforms. The rule was seemingly reversed after a lot backlash. “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again,” Elon tweeted in response to the backlash.
Elon’s tenure as the top of Twitter has been mired in controversy since he acquired the corporate in October. He suspended a handful of celebrities who modified their show names to “Elon Musk” to troll him. He’s been criticized for reinstating accounts by former President Donald Trump, who was banned following the January 6 assault on the Capitol, and Kanye West, who was suspended for tweeting antisemitic remarks. Musk additionally briefly suspended journalists, claiming that they’d “doxxed” him, for tweeting out info concerning an account that shared info on Elon’s non-public jet. Following a ballot, he reinstated the accounts.
Following Elon’s $44 billion buy, various celebrities, together with Whoopi Goldberg and Elton John, introduced that they might be leaving the platform because of the billionaire’s selections to permit sure varieties of speech and misinformation to unfold all through the app. Still, some stayed on the positioning, even when they had been indignant about Elon’s buy, equivalent to actress Alyssa Milano, who mentioned that she wished to preserve the struggle to share her views. She mentioned that she’d returned her Tesla after sexual misconduct allegations got here out towards Elon (which he has denied), however she additionally defined that he may’ve used the cash for the acquisition to do one thing charitable throughout an interview on The View. “I’m so annoyed with these billionaires, with the exception of a few, but especially Elon Musk. You buy Twitter to destroy it for $40 billion. $40 billion. Elon Musk, imagine if he donated that money to UNICEF. He would change the world. There would be no hunger,” she mentioned.