Billionaire Twitter CEO Elon Musk has received a clear indication from Twitter users that the majority of them would like to see him step down from his job after weeks of controversy surrounding the social media platform.
About 57.5% of the 17.5 million people who participated in a self-initiated poll asked, "Should I step down as president of Twitter?" He answered in the affirmative.
Musk promised to honor the poll result. However, he did not comment after polls closed.
After news of the poll result, shares of electric car maker Tesla jumped 5.0% in pre-market trading, having fallen by a third since Musk took over the social media giant in October.
Since Musk took the reins after the $44 billion takeover, primarily by selling shares in Tesla, the platform has been mired in a number of controversies surrounding different interpretations of what "freedom of speech" should mean.
He fired several Twitter employees, with human content moderation teams largely cut out in favor of automated processes.
Musk, who claims to be a "free-speech absolutist," reinstated former US President Donald Trump's account, and said Twitter would end its previous policy of banning misinformation about COVID-19.
He also came under fire from officials in France, Germany, Britain, the European Union, and the United Nations after Twitter last week froze the accounts of several journalists, including those from CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.
Most of the accounts were restored by early Saturday morning.
Among those suspended were journalists who tweeted about Twitter's shutdown of account tracking flights of Musk's private jet.
Twitter did not say why the accounts were suspended, but Musk accused some journalists of sharing his whereabouts. Some of those suspended by Twitter said they had not posted anything like that.
Musk has also tried to charge for previously free services.
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