Elon Musk announced on Twitter on Tuesday his intention to leave the head of the social network as soon as he “finds someone crazy enough” to replace him, explaining that the billionaire will therefore focus on “software and servers.”
The owner of the microblogging platform responded to the result of a poll he himself initiated on Twitter on Monday by asking whether he should step down as CEO or not, with 57% of 17 million voters responding in the affirmative.
While he initially said he would abide by the results of his poll, Mr Musk has been sending rather conflicting signals in recent hours, at first seemingly believing the result was skewed by bot voting.
Less than eight weeks after Twitter took control of the $44 billion social network, the storm is unabated. The company is on the verge of a financial abyss, having lost a number of advertisers due to the risk to brands due to the billionaire’s desire to reduce content moderation.
Earlier in the day, Elon Musk retweeted the results of a poll conducted by the HarrisX Institute among his own sample of platform users, which gave 61% of those polled in favor of retaining him as chief executive officer.
“Interestingly, this suggests that we do have a bit of a problem with bots on Twitter,” the platform’s owner responded to a tweet from the institute that presented the results.
The comment comes after Elon Musk backed up another tweet saying his poll was generated by a bot. He also calculated that any new survey would now be for paid Twitter users.
In the past, the businessman has relied on polls to support controversial decisions, such as reactivating the account of former US President Donald Trump, as well as other users who have been banned.
The outcome of his latest poll initially led to a title boost for Tesla, whose investors are increasingly critical of the attention given to Twitter since the takeover, to the detriment of the automaker, they say.
Several American media, for their part, assured that Elon Musk went in search of a replacement, citing anonymous sources, information that the owner of Twitter then dismissed with a simple mocking smiley on the social network.
© Agence France-Presse