Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO after user poll calls for his resignation
Elon Musk dropped the curtain on his much-publicised ambition to make the world a better place through the influence of social media, especially Twitter which has emerged as the most powerful medium used by the world's foremost intellectuals, by announcing his exit as the CEO of the microblogging site he owns.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Musk said he would resign as Twitter's chief executive officer once he finds someone "foolish enough to take the job".
Earlier, a clear majority of Twitter users prescribed his ouster as 'Chief Twit' in a poll initiated by him. The result of a Twitter poll saw 57.5% of users vote "yes" to him quitting the role.
As anticipated earlier in the circles following a drastic drop in revenue of Twitter, Musk said he will still run the software and servers teams after his replacement is found.
Since his takeover, Twitter has been in deep trouble over the drastic slash of jobs, mass resignation, and Musk's differences with advertisers. Musk has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter's paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause.
The billionaire is under fire from civil liberties groups that have criticised his approach to content moderation, accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.
United Nations and European Union on Friday slammed Musk over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists, who cover the social media firm.
In a Tweet, the UN rapped Musk over his claims of freedom of speech. The tweet said freedom was "not a toy", while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.
Cornered from all sides, the first time the multibillionaire has responded to the poll launched on Sunday asking if he should resign.
Speculations over successor
A disillusioned Musk maintained that finding a successor won't be easy. Speculations are rife that Twitter co-founder Jack, who resigned as chief executive in Novem2012, could also come back to run the company.
"No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive," he tweeted following the poll.
Other big names who can be frontrunners are Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's former chief operating officer, Sriram Krishnan, engineer and close confidante to Musk, and Jared Kushner, US former presidential adviser and son-in-law of Donald Trump.