It's time for our monthly live look as social media platform Twitter descends into chaos. This time, CEO Elon Musk has vowed to step down as chief, asking people on the platform to vote on his departure. The poll garnered more than 16 million votes, with nearly 60% of people saying Musk should step aside.
It follows a tumultuous 24 hours where Twitter tried to roll out draconian laws preventing people from posting to other social media platforms. Here's the story so far.
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"I will abide by the result of this poll"...
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.December 18, 2022
As Musk attended the World Cup Final Sunday, Twitter Support rolled out a controversial new policy threatening to ban users if they posted links or usernames for platforms including Facebook and Instagram, as well as emerging rival Mastodon. Notably, Twitter had nothing to say about links to TikTok. Twitter also said it was going to remove Linktree URLs from user bios.
The new policy was met with almost universal condemnation across the platform, in particular from content creators who rely on expanding their audiences across a broad range of social media platforms. "It's going to hamstring creators/social managers," Bad Brain Digital Consulting founder Bailey Carlin told Musk. "This policy hurts creators, who you said you were making a better environment for."
TSLA is up nearly 5 percent in pre-market following Musk poll asking if he should step down from Twitter https://t.co/pCCroJmnWL pic.twitter.com/lXfusAXm4JDecember 19, 2022
A contrite Elon...
Following the debacle with the social media linking policy, Elon Musk apologized and said going forward that major policy changes would only be conducted by vote.
Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.December 18, 2022
What happened on Sunday?
While Musk attended the World Cup Final, Twitter rolled out a controversial new policy that threatened to ban users if they posted links or usernames to other platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
The policy was met with universal condemnation on the platform, especially from content creators.
Be careful what you wish for...
Not long after posting his poll, Musk tweeted "as the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it." Could he really go through with his plan to abide by the results of this poll?
Running scared
A new report notes that Elon Musk is not only drawing the ire of regulators and advertisers, but also content creators. According to Bloomberg, 97% of tweets on the network come from 25% of the users.
Relief for TSLA investors?
Dan Ives says Musk stepping down would be a big relief for Tesla investors. The stock surged at the open at the prospect...
No successor...
"The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive," Musk said late Sunday, confirming too that there is no successor in place and "no one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive."
Wrong side of the law
Not only was Twitter and Elon Musk's linking policy very unpopular, it might have also been unlawful...
IMPORTANT: @elonmusk's new policy preventing linking to competitors is in DIRECT VIOLATION of European Union rules. Penalty can be a fine of up to 20% of Twitter's annual revenuehttps://t.co/Wu1dU4JRn7 pic.twitter.com/cZWsl92nprDecember 18, 2022
Some kind of record...
Elon Musk hasn't tweeted for 14 hours, which must be some kind of record.
