Elon Musk will step down as Twitter boss – if he stands by his pledge to abide by the results of a poll asking users for their verdict on his tenure.

The owner of Tesla and SpaceX set his poll in motion just after 11pm UK time, writing: “Should I step down as head of Twitter?

“I will abide by the results of this poll.”

And as the deadline passed at 11.20am, 57.5% voted for him to leave.

Musk bought the platform for $44bn in late October, but his short tenure has been turbulent.

And in an apparent attempt to draw a line under his controversial reign, he polled Twitter users on Sunday to ask if he should step down.

Roughly 20 minutes later, with the ‘yes’ votes edging ahead, he added: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

Elon Musk asks Twitter users if he should step down as boss of social media site

Elon Musk reverses Twitter ban for group of journalists after backlash

Trying to work out Elon Musk’s grand Twitter strategy is pointless – he doesn’t have one

He responded to a number of comments from users, telling one: “The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.”

He added: “No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

It is unclear if or when he would hand over the day-to-day running of the social media giant.

Earlier on Sunday, he had declared war on Twitter’s social media rivals by banning the promotion of their accounts from his platform.

This means that users could have their accounts suspended, locked or deleted if they post links to their profiles on other social media sites, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Mastodon and Donald Trump’s Truth Social.

When he took charge, Musk promised to improve Twitter, ridding it of fake accounts and improving free speech.

But it has lost many of its major advertisers, as concern grows about its direction – and about its ability to pay interest on the $13bn debt Musk took on to buy it.

On Saturday Reuters news agency revealed that Musk’s team had asked investors for more funding, just days after selling another $3.6bn of Tesla shares – meaning he has sold nearly $40bn of shares in his electric vehicle company this year.

Related posts:

El Salvador votes to become first country to use Bitcoin as legal tender Airbnb listings lead to increased neighbourhood violence, study finds ‘I was told having a child would kill me’ Facebook planning to ‘rebrand the company with a new name’ Users report outage on social media apps and internet services including Snapchat and Spotify New name for famous home of LA Lakers in $700m deal – but fans aren’t impressed OpenSea confirms hacker stole NFTs ‘worth £1.25m’ from 32 users Police look for crypto scam victims after seizing millions from suspects Apple, Amazon, Meta and Google targeted by landmark EU law ‘Major’ cyberattack may mean it takes longer for NHS 111 calls to be answered this weekend Nazi boat sunk by the British during WWII is still polluting the sea 3D-printed food to ‘sentient’ chatbots – five Big Ideas Live highlights