Tesla Chief executive officer and Twitter head Elon Musk has vowed to step down from his position and is now searching for a new CEO to lead the privacy advocate’s social media platform. Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who accepted bitcoin payment, has already thrown his name into the hat.
Elon Musk Steps Down as Twitter CEO
Elon Musk held a Twitter poll to see if his 122.3 million followers would vote for him to step down as CEO of the social media platform. The billionaire said that he would comply with the poll results, which saw 57.5% of 17.5 million respondents wanting him to resign.
Responding to comments that a new CEO is already in place and will take over Twitter’s board of directors, Musk clarified: “Nobody wants a job that will keep them employed. Twitter alive. There is no successor.” In another tweet, the Tesla boss explained:
The question is not about finding a CEO, but finding one who is able to keep the company running. Twitter alive.
Many people urged Musk not to resign. “If Elon Musk leaves Twitter, I will close my account. That’s why I opened it in the first place,” one exclaimed. “The crowd chose to crucify Jesus too, remember Elon Musk. The crowd is not always right. Leaders LEAD, they don’t bow down!” another told the billionaire. “He defends freedom of expression. The First Amendment needs you,” a third user highlighted.
In November, Musk stated in court that he didn’t want to be CEO of Twitter, stating: “I hope to reduce my time at Twitter and find someone else to run Twitter over time.”
Responding to a question about his gender being “strong enough to be despised” as CEO of Twitter, noting that Musk’s problem is that “crazies on the right are taking him away from what he wanted Twitter 2.0 to be like”, Snowden wrote:
Oh, I think I’ve been subject to quite a lot of criticism in the past.
Some people complained that they couldn’t see Musk’s poll in time to vote. Many users believe that bots were responsible for most votes. “This poll isn’t fair, I didn’t even see it until the last day because this time of
