CNN
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Twitter proprietor Elon Musk confirmed Tuesday night he’ll step down as the corporate’s CEO, however solely when he identifies a successor, immediately addressing for the primary time a Twitter ballot he created this week by which thousands and thousands of customers voted for his ouster.
In a tweet, Musk stated he would resign “as quickly as I discover somebody silly sufficient to take the job!”
He added that following his resignation as CEO, Musk would “run the software program & servers groups” at Twitter, indicating he could proceed to train important affect on the corporate’s decision-making.
The announcement comes after greater than a day of silence in regards to the ballot following its end result. On Monday, after greater than 17 million customers had voted — 57.5% of whom stated Musk ought to resign — the billionaire govt addressed the outcomes solely not directly. He urged that future Twitter polls could possibly be restricted to paid customers of Twitter Blue, the corporate’s subscription service.
Musk’s ballot asking customers whether or not he ought to resign as CEO got here after an enormous backlash to Twitter’s abrupt suspension of a number of journalists who cowl him, in addition to Twitter’s resolution to ban, after which un-ban, hyperlinks to different social media platforms together with Fb, Instagram and Mastodon, a fast-growing Twitter rival that has octupled in dimension since October.
Musk’s temporary tenure as CEO has resulted in sweeping, sometimes erratic shifts at one of many world’s most influential social media firms.
Below his management, Twitter has laid off the vast majority of its workers, alienated main advertisers, welcomed former President Donald Trump again to the platform after his suspension within the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and launched inner communications to journalists about Twitter’s operations earlier than Musk took possession of the corporate.
Musk pressured remaining staff to take a pledge to turn into “extraordinarily hardcore” of their work, and stopped implementing Twitter’s coverage in opposition to Covid-19 misinformation.
Over a matter of days, Twitter launched, after which was pressured to un-launch, a paid verification characteristic that was immediately manipulated by satirical accounts impersonating verified main manufacturers, athletes and different public figures on the platform.
Musk’s penchant for making main product adjustments primarily based on little greater than casual Twitter polls has highlighted his advert hoc and improvisational administration type. However that method has attracted rising criticism from many Twitter customers. Final week, Twitter suspended a number of journalists who had reported on Musk’s everlasting ban of an account that tracked his jet.
Rising criticism of Musk culminated in Sunday’s ballot that served as an efficient, if unscientific, referendum on Musk’s dealing with of the corporate since he closed his buy of Twitter in late October.