(Bloomberg) — In one of his first tweets after a poll calling for him to step down, company owner Elon Musk said Twitter would restrict voting on major policy decisions by paying Twitter Blue subscribers.
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In response to a blue member named Unfiltered Boss, Musk agreed with the suggestion that only subscribers should have a vote in future politics and said, “Twitter is going to make this change.” The day before, the billionaire’s boss pledged to put all future policy decisions to a vote and offered Twitter users a choice of leadership, asking if he should step down.
More than 10 million, or 57.5% of the vote, supported Musk giving up his role as head of Twitter. He committed to sticking to the outcome when asking for a vote, but about a day later, he tweeted more than 10 times without directly addressing the outcome. Musk responded to a tweet suggesting the poll may have been manipulated by bots with one word: “interesting.”
Musk’s dramatic offer to step down came shortly after he attended the World Cup final in Qatar, sparking a flurry of trending topics such as “vote yes” and “CEO of Twitter.” He did not name a replacement commander and went so far as to say that anyone capable of doing the job would not want it.
Musk has warned that Twitter is at risk of bankruptcy and has created a “tight” work environment for remaining workers after sharp staff cuts. In his less than two months at the helm, he’s scared away advertisers, alienated excited Twitter creators and turned the service from a reflection of the day’s news to the main topic.
After losing the initial poll, Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla Inc. , retweeted promotional materials for the car company and for the Blue for Business service on Twitter. He also responded to an article about criticism of electric vehicle rival Toyota Motor Corp. with a simple “Wow.”
Tesla stock, by far Musk’s most valuable holding, has fallen since the Twitter acquisition and critics have argued he is spending too much time on the social media company.
(Updates with the latest tweets from Misk in the third paragraph)
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