Billionaire Elon Musk says he is quitting his job as chief executive of Twitter as soon as he finds somebody who can replace him. Musk has said before that it was never his intention to remain as chief executive of Twitter long-term, but the tweet on Tuesday came as renewed questions swirled about his ability to run the social media company.
“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,” Musk wrote on Twitter.
In November, Musk told a court in Delaware that he was going to cut back his time with the company and would eventually find someone to lead it instead.
Musk launched a poll asking users whether he should resign as company CEO in the wake of massive backlash over Twitter’s sudden suspensions of several journalists, and Twitter’s decision to ban promotional links to other social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, and others.
Musk had earlier said that he would respect the results of an informal survey that he launched after even some of his own allies had been critical of some recent Twitter policies. With over 17.5 million votes total, the majority of users said that Musk should resign from the role of Twitter chief, weeks after Musk acquired Twitter and took over the job.
Since Musk added that, following his departure as CEO, he will lead Twitter’s software and servers team, it’s logical to assume that he could still exert a substantial influence over company decisions. The announcement came after more than a day of silence about the survey following its results. Musk has used polls in several key decisions since taking the reins of Tesla, including whether to reinstate former President Donald Trump.
