Elon Musk Says He’s Stepping Down as Twitter CEO
Elon Musk attends The 2022 Met Gala Celebrating "In America: An Anthology of Fashion" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 02, 2022 in New York City.
Elon Musk asked if he should resign as CEO of Twitter earlier this week in a Twitter poll. More than half (57.5%) of the 17 million who voted in the poll voted in favor of the billionaire executive stepping down. He added, “I will abide by the results of this poll.” At first, Musk addressed the results indirectly, suggesting that future Twitter polls could be restricted to paid users of Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service.
Musk’s poll came after a massive backlash to Twitter’s abrupt suspension of several journalists who cover him, as well as Twitter’s decision to ban, and then un-ban, links to other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, a fast-growing Twitter rival that has octupled in size since October, per CNN. Last week, Twitter suspended several journalists who had reported on Musk’s permanent ban of an account that tracked his jet.
On Tuesday night (December 20), Musk confirmed that he will step down as the company’s CEO, but only when he chooses a successor. The SpaceX founder wrote: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.”
As we’ve earlier reported, since Musk took over Twitter, mass layoffs within the company have happened. Musk forced remaining employees to take a pledge to become “extremely hardcore” in their wor and stopped enforcing Twitter’s policy against Covid-19 misinformation. When it came to the paid verification feature, Twitter launched and then un-launched after a mass influx of satirical accounts manipulated the site by impersonating public figures (including Elon), major brands and athletes.
Musk acquired Twitter in late October. Leading up to his acquisition of the social site, Musk has been clear that he wanted to revamp how Twitter verifies accounts and handles bots. Before he launched the paid verification feature, he tweeted: “The whole verification process is being revamped right now.” That didn’t age well.
Elon Musk Suspending Impersonator Twitter Accounts
Elon Musk’s “comedy is now legal” claim 24 hours after his Twitter takeover on October 28 has not aged well. When it comes to jokes about the new Twitter CEO, verified accounts that changed their names to “Elon Musk” have been suspended over the weekend.
Musk, 51, addressed the verified impersonator accounts with a Twitter thread on Sunday (November 6) evening. “Going forward, any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended,” Musk wrote. “Previously, we issued a warning before suspension, but now that we are rolling out widespread verification, there will be no warning,” Musk said in another tweet. “This will be clearly identified as a condition for signing up to Twitter Blue.” He concluded his thread by saying, “Any name change at all will cause temporary loss of verified checkmark.”
“Widespread verification will democratize journalism & empower the voice of the people,” Musk said in a tweet after the thread. “My commitment to free speech extends even to not banning the account following my plane, even though that is a direct personal safety risk,” Musk wrote.
One Twitter user reported on the news that comedian Kathy Griffin was suspended for impersonating Elon Musk, to which the Tesla CEO responded, “Actually, she was suspended for impersonating a comedian.” He then cheekily added in two separate tweets: “But if she really wants her account back, she can have it. For $8.”
Kathy Griffin then tweeted from her late mother’s Twitter, with the name Elon Musk today (November 7)writing, “Elon, this is Maggie contacting you from the spirit world tell u…you’re a douchebag. This is not parody. This is the actual ghost of Kathy Griffin’s boxed wine loving mother saying I’m gonna get tipsy & throw my bingo cards at you! NOT A PARODY.
To the moon, a–hole. #FreeKathy.” The 62-year-old comedian’s page was suspended after she impersonated the social media platform’s new CEO and mocked him in a tweet.
Musk then wrote a tweet that linked out to Twitter’s current rules, which “will evolve over time.” Twitter rolled out a new update on Saturday for the app, highlighting its new paid verification system, but the company has since decided to delay its rollout until after the midterm elections, per The New York Times.
Other high-profile accounts took to the platform with jokes about Musk. See them below:
Laila Abuelhawa is the Top 40 and Hip-Hop pop culture writer for Beasley Media Group. Being with the company for over three years, Laila's fierce and fabulous red-carpet rankings have earned her a feature on 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert!' Her favorite stories are those surrounding the latest in celebrity fashion, television and film rankings, and how the world reacts to major celebrity news. With a background in journalism, Laila's stories ensure accuracy and offer background information on stars that you wouldn't have otherwise known. She prides herself in covering stories that inform the public about what is currently happening and what is to come in the ever-changing, ever-evolving media landscape.
