NEW YORK— Elon Musk has stayed silent on whether he will remain the head of Twitter.

The billionaire had asked his Twitter users on Sunday (Dec 18) whether he should step down as the leader of the social media site. More than 17 million votes were cast and delivered a clear verdict: 57.5 per cent said he should quit, in a Twitter “poll” that closed after 12 hours on Monday.

Mr Musk had said he would abide by the results of the vote. But hours after the vote closed, there was no acknowledgement from Mr  Musk on Twitter.
 
If he follows through, Mr Musk will be handing over the reins of the company that he bought for US$44 billion (S$59.6 billion) in late October. The turbulent weeks since then have been marked by mass layoffs at the company, falling advertising sales, executive resignations and the suspensions of various high-profile user accounts for infractions of newly invented policy.
 
On Sunday, Twitter announced a policy to prevent users from sharing links and user names from other social platforms, like Instagram, Facebook and Mastodon, and then apparently curtailed the same policy.
But for some users, including former supporters of Mr Musk, the chaotic weekend was a breaking point.
 
Mr Musk’s latest actions with Twitter were “the last straw,” Paul Graham, a founder of the start-up accelerator Y Combinator, tweeted on Sunday. Mr  Graham had supported Mr  Musk’s takeover, but on Sunday he wrote: “I give up. You can find a link to my new Mastodon profile on my site.” His account was briefly suspended.

Last week, Twitter suspended about two dozen accounts that tracked the locations of private planes, including one that followed Mr Musk’s private jet, justifying the decision with a new policy that banned accounts if they shared another person’s “live location.” The accounts of some journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN and other outlets were also suspended last week, seemingly under the same policy, and then reinstated after Mr Musk asked users if they should be allowed back on the platform. Fifty-nine per cent responded yes, in a Twitter “poll” with 3.7 million votes.
After asking users whether he should stay on as head of Twitter, Mr  Musk said in another tweet: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

There are signs that Mr Musk’s ownership and focus on Twitter are interfering with his other business ventures. Since Mr Musk acquired Twitter, the value of Tesla has sunk. The car company’s share price was US$225 on Oct. 27, the day Mr  Musk completed the acquisition of Twitter. On Friday, Tesla shares closed at US$150.

Last week, Mr Musk disclosed that he had sold another US$3.6 billion worth of Tesla stock. This year, Mr Musk has now sold US$23 billion worth of Tesla stock, much of it after he pledged in April to stop selling shares to finance his Twitter deal.

“Attention focused on Twitter instead of golden child Tesla has been another big issue for investors and likely is behind this poll result with many Musk loyalists wanting him to leave as CEO of Twitter,” the analysts Daniel Ives and John Katsingris at Wedbush Securities wrote in a note published shortly before the Twitter vote closed.

Mr  Musk’s resignation from Twitter would be a “a major step forward,” they added, with the billionaire finally realising that there has been “growing frustration around this Twitter nightmare that grows worse by the day.”
On Monday, Tesla shares ended the day largely unchanged, trading at just below US$150.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.