Twitter users have voted in favour of Elon Musk stepping down as the platform's chief executive after the billionaire ran a poll on his future.

A total of 57.5% voted "yes" after Mr Musk asked his 122 million followers whether he should stand down.

Mr Musk, who bought Twitter for $44bn (£36bn), said before the poll closed that he would abide by the result.

The technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and Space X, has faced much criticism since taking over the site.

Mr Musk is yet to comment since the poll closed. Even if he were to resign as chief executive, he would remain as Twitter's owner.

More than 17 million people voted in his poll on Monday.

In the past Mr Musk has obeyed Twitter polls. He's fond of quoting the phrase "vox populi, vox dei", a Latin phrase which roughly means "the voice of the people is the voice of God".


Dan Ives, senior equity analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the BBC before the poll closed that he believed the vote would "ultimately" lead to the "ending of Musk's reign as chief executive of Twitter".

There has been a flurry of controversial changes at Twitter since Mr Musk bought the social media site.

He has fired about half of its staff and attempted a rollout of Twitter's paid-for verification feature before putting it on pause. The feature was relaunched last week.

He has also been criticised for his approach to content moderation, with some civil liberties groups accusing him of taking steps that will increase hate speech and misinformation.

On Friday, Mr Musk was condemned by the United Nations and European Union over Twitter's decision to suspend some journalists who cover the social media firm.

The UN tweeted that media freedom is "not a toy", while the EU threatened Twitter with sanctions.

'Circus show'
Mr Ives said the last few weeks and months had been a "black eye for Musk and a black eye for Tesla" which he said was the "golden child" because it is where most of the billionaire's wealth is.

"Twitter right now - it's a quicksand situation and I think it's gotten worse since Musk took over Twitter. It's been a circus show," he added.

"I think ultimately in the next 24 hours Musk will probably name a new temporary CEO of Twitter."

After starting the poll, Mr Musk tweeted: "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it."

He added later: "Those who want power are the ones who least deserve it."

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-your-money-64021412

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