Musk polls Twitter customers on whether or not he ought to step down as CEO

Elon Musk has launched a Twitter ballot asking customers if he ought to step down as head of the social media platform and pledged to honour the consequence, after a backlash to a brand new coverage banning the promotion of accounts on rival platforms.

The billionaire entrepreneur, who purchased Twitter for $44bn in October and is its chief govt, wrote to his 122mn followers on Sunday night time: “Ought to I step down as head of Twitter? I’ll abide by the outcomes of this ballot.” The ballot is open for 11 hours.

Musk later tweeted: “Nobody needs the job who can really hold Twitter alive. There isn’t any successor.”

The transfer comes after Twitter introduced earlier on Sunday a brand new coverage banning customers from sharing hyperlinks to their accounts on rival platforms, together with Mark Zuckerberg’s Fb and Instagram, in addition to rising Twitter rival Mastodon, Donald Trump’s Truth Social, plus Tribel, Nostr and Publish.

“We all know that a lot of our customers could also be lively on different social media platforms; nonetheless, going ahead, Twitter will not permit free promotion of particular social media platforms on Twitter,” the corporate mentioned in a publish.

Examples of banned tweets would come with “comply with me @username on Instagram” or “username@mastodon.social”, in accordance with the platform. Preliminary offences might end in short-term suspensions or a requirement to delete the offending tweet, however repeat offenders threat everlasting suspension, it mentioned.

Customers will nonetheless have the ability to publish normal content material from the opposite platforms on to their feed, and paid commercials for any of the prohibited social media platforms is permitted, it mentioned. Below the brand new guidelines, using third-party hyperlink aggregators similar to Linktree is not going to be permitted.

“Twitter ought to be straightforward to make use of, however no extra relentless free promoting of rivals. No conventional writer permits this and neither will Twitter,” Musk mentioned on the platform earlier on Sunday.

Nonetheless, the coverage sparked rapid criticism from Musk’s detractors and even a few of his high-profile Silicon Valley allies for being too restrictive.

The SpaceX and Tesla chief govt then responded by saying that the coverage could be “adjusted” in order that suspensions would solely apply “when that account’s main objective is promotion of rivals”.

In a separate tweet, he wrote: “Going ahead, there shall be a vote for main coverage modifications. My apologies. Received’t occur once more.”

The transfer is the most recent shake-up since Musk took the helm, firing round half of its workers, reducing prices and overhauling its verification and moderation processes.

It comes two days after Musk additionally suspended a number of high-profile US journalists from Twitter, suggesting they fell foul of a lately created coverage on sharing location data. The journalists, together with Ryan Mac of the New York Occasions and Donie O’Sullivan of CNN, have since been reinstated. On Friday, EU and UK politicians expressed concern over the suspensions and press freedom.

Sunday’s coverage change drew scrutiny from a few of Musk’s supporters in Silicon Valley together with former a16z companion Balaji Srinivasan, who wrote: “It is a unhealthy coverage and ought to be reversed. The proper method to compete is to construct a greater product, to not limit using your product.”

In the meantime, Paul Graham, the founding father of the Y Combinator start-up incubator who had beforehand praised Musk as he took over Twitter, wrote: “That is the final straw. I hand over”, earlier than including that his web site had a hyperlink to his Mastodon account. He was then suspended from the platform for the tweet.

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s former chief govt who invested in one of many banned platforms Nostr, tweeted that the coverage “doesn’t make sense”. 

Different critics argue that the transfer is more likely to be unpopular amongst creators, most of whom have constructed up audiences throughout a number of platforms, and is at odds with Musk’s pledge to be a free speech proponent. Musk has introduced again accounts that have been completely banned beneath the earlier management, similar to that of former US president Donald Trump.

Specialists additionally warn that the insurance policies might draw scrutiny from EU and US regulators. “These [policies] are clearly anti-competitive . . . as they appear to stop communication throughout shoppers evaluating rivals,” mentioned Pinar Yildirim, affiliate professor of economics and advertising on the Wharton Faculty of the College of Pennsylvania.

Earlier than Sunday’s coverage was introduced, many Twitter customers trying to share hyperlinks to their very own Mastodon profiles have been prevented from doing so, with the positioning flagging the posts as “probably dangerous”.