Elon Musk‘s admittedly short tenure at Twitter has been a bit of a mess to say the very least. With more than half the staff gone, the Trust and Safety Council dissolved, and a sharp rise in hate speech, the already beleaguered social media platform has become even more toxic and hellish. Now that the masses have voiced their desire for Musk to leave, he may be doing just that.
Musk’s desire to take over Twitter came from a place of complete hubris, and it appeared that even Musk himself realized that he wasn’t up for the job before he even got it as he tried to delay his promised takeover of the company. Taking out loans from banks Morgan and Stanley as well as the Bank of America, amongst others, Musk was able to complete the transaction though the market has since tanked, especially for risky tech dealings according to CNBC.
Now it may look like the tech mogul is looking for a way out, as he foolishly posted a poll to his site asking the general public whether he should stay on as the CEO or leave. To no one’s surprise, the results ended with a 57.5 percent majority of over 17 million voters saying he should exit his role. Based on his latest tweet it would appear he is serious, though we may not see any major changes just yet.
As Musk implies, to take over Twitter at a time when the company is essentially circling the drain is somewhat of a fool’s errand. Along with mass layoffs the company has seen mass walkouts as remaining staff quit in what has been called “The Great Twitter Exodus.” With many of the engineering staff having also vacated their positions it leaves the site vulnerable to bugs and technical failures.
Not only this but the company has been making a loss for the last 10 of its 12 years. Not many want to captain a ship that appears to have already broken in two.
As it stands Musk is still in charge and for a while appeared to be pretending as if it never happened, even going as far as agreeing with people that perhaps the poll was rigged… a poll he created… on his own site.
Now we will have to wait and see if a worthy leader will emerge to take on the role and try to somehow duct tape the failing site back together, or whether Musk will just have to continue on with business as usual despite the engines being down, the lower levels flooded, and the staff has all jumped overboard. Well, if no other candidates step forward at least Snoop Dogg may be available.