He then launched a Twitter poll, surveying users on whether he should resign. Musk had obeyed previous polls, even though they were unscientific and unrepresentative.
“Should I resign as head of Twitter? I will accept the results of this poll.” he wrote. He later added: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, as you can get it.”
Should I resign as CEO of Twitter? I will accept the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) 18 December 2022
Respondents leaned heavily toward “yes” in Musk’s poll, indicating Musk should be fired after nearly an hour of voting: 58 percent of more than 3 million votes in favor of his mandate. The delivery was right. The poll was scheduled to close before the stock market opened Monday morning, at a time when Tesla stock — the source of most of Musk’s net worth — plunged. Investors said Musk’s departure from Twitter would boost Tesla’s outlook
Musk’s sudden shift came earlier in the day after Twitter said it would suspend accounts associated with “prohibited platforms” such as Facebook and Instagram if those accounts “have the primary purpose of promoting content on another social platform.” Used for”, according to the announcement. Sunday.
of the Policydated this month and tweeted on Sunday afternoon, says tweets promoting accounts on some sites may be removed if users ask their Twitter followers to join them elsewhere.
“At the tweet level and at the account level, we will remove free promotion from prohibited third-party social media platforms,” the policy states. It lists several examples of similar social media sites, including Facebook, Instagram and Indeed Social, which former President Donald Trump Co-founded.
Musk’s ownership of Twitter — which he bought for $44 billion in October — has confused the site. He fired company executives and installed a group of loyalists, laid off more than half the staff and dialed back Twitter’s content moderation. He is involved in misinformation as the site’s owner and has quickly made new and confusing changes, courting controversy and threatening advertisers, some of whom have stopped spending on the site.
His sudden and sometimes arbitrary decisions hurt many of Twitter’s core users and employees, but also some of his supporters, who were rooting for his ownership bid to promote “free speech.”
Earlier Sunday, Musk appeared to have lost the support of some people who had supported his management moves on Twitter over the new policy.
George Hotz, the software developer who hired Musk for an internship at the company after he tweeted excitedly about the business mogul’s takeover, tweeted a link to his Instagram account Sunday night.
“To say it’s forbidden, that’s not where I want to be anymore. That’s far from freedom of speech,” he tweeted.
There was a lot of outcry just a few weeks ago, when Musk issued an ultimatum to Twitter employees that they would commit to an “extremely hard” pace to build the new Twitter.
“This is the attitude that creates incredible things. Let all the people who don’t want greatness leave,” Hutz wrote.
Meanwhile, Twitter users criticized the suspension of Paul Graham, who had spoken highly of Musk’s leadership but promoted his Mastodon handle on Twitter, screenshots on the site showed.
“This is the last straw,” he wrote, according to screenshots posted to the site. Graham’s account was suspended shortly thereafter.
“This is a terrible policy and must be withdrawn,” he tweeted.
Those actions put Musk on the defensive, and he appeared to respond to the backlash, a rare move for the Twitter chief who took over in October.
“Paul’s account will be restored soon,” he tweeted.
Twitter has shed much of its public relations since Musk took over the company in October, and Musk did not respond to emailed questions about the new rules earlier in the day.
Musk, the billionaire owner of Tesla and SpaceX, recently suspended and reinstated a number of top journalists who he said violated Twitter’s rules.
In the weeks since the Twitter sale was finalized, Musk has dialed back enforcement of many of the site’s previous policies on hate speech and misinformation, while in some cases resorting to unscientific polls to make decisions, such as Reinstatement of former President Donald Trump.
The new policy follows a ban on links to some other social media sites that many prominent Twitter users promote to their alternate accounts, often suggesting that being on Twitter may become unsafe as Musk overhauls the platform.
On Sunday, the company’s announcement fueled a debate over whether the move could lead to legal challenges for Twitter.
“This is the clearest declaration of weakness I have ever seen from a major US tech platform, and a transparent declaration of anti-competitive intent that the GC. Will set himself on fire to avoid (if anyone on Twitter had that job) Tweeted Alex Stamos, Facebook’s former chief security officer, using an acronym for “general counsel.” He now directs the Stanford Internet Observatory, “a research, teaching and policy program focused on the misuse of information technology,” according to the website.
In addition to linking to Facebook, Instagram and Veritas Social, promoting social media sites Mastodon, Treble, Post and Nostar are restricted under a new Twitter policy announced on Sunday. Third party link aggregators like linktr.ee and lnk.bio are also banned. Listing a social media handle without a URL is not allowed.
Twitter said that a first violation of its policy could range from requiring a tweet to be deleted to temporarily suspending an account. The company said an account may be suspended if the violation is in the bio or account name. Subsequent policy violations may result in permanent suspension.
Twitter abruptly suspended several high-profile journalists last week, including one from The Washington Post, after Musk claimed they had shared “basically murder coordinates” for him and his family — an apparent reference to tweets about the platform. Using which he suspended an account. Public flight data to track Musk’s private jet. Twitter allowed several journalists to access the platform on Saturday.
Musk was also temporarily suspended, and then a second Post reporter was reinstated this weekend.
Washington Post Executive Editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement Sunday: “Once again, the suspension came without warning, process or explanation — this time our reporter only sought comment from Musk for a story. ” “The Post journalists should be reinstated as soon as possible without arbitrary conditions.”
On Sunday, Musk was at the World Cup finals in Qatar, tweeting posts from the game.
Billy Zakrzewski contributed to this report.
