Elon Musk wants to resign as Twitter boss – but only after a successor has been found. The owner of the short message service tweeted this on Tuesday (local time). In a poll initiated by Musk himself, a majority of Twitter users had previously spoken out in favor of his resignation. However, there is currently little indication that Musk will quickly find a suitable candidate for the top job.
Musk had already warned before the vote that there were no interested parties who were able to “actually keep Twitter alive”. He himself had taken over the top position in the course of his approximately 44 billion dollar purchase of the Internet platform in October. However, Musk had already signaled that this should not be a permanent solution. He also heads the electric car maker Tesla and the rocket company SpaceX.
Musk’s almost two months as “Head of Twitter” have been characterized by chaos and controversy. After a series of highly controversial decisions, the headwind for the 51-year-old star entrepreneur has become increasingly stronger. The Twitter poll he initiated himself on Sunday turned out to be quite clear: 57.5 percent of the 17.5 million votes were for the resignation. Musk had previously assured that he would stick to the result of the vote.
Musk’s Twitter purchase raised suspicions from the start. The multi-billionaire justified the takeover as an action to strengthen freedom of speech. However, critics feared that the internet platform would be further brutalized and that the change of ownership could lead to more unbridled hate speech, hate speech and disinformation. Musk failed to address those concerns. On the contrary: With a wave of layoffs, erratic rule changes and other explosive decisions, he shook the online network and frightened advertisers – the most important source of income.
