We’ve seen Elon Musk poll Twitter users about whether certain actions should be taken, including whether former President Trump’s Twitter account should be reactivated. Just a couple of days after the January 6th, 2021 insurrection, the social media platform permanently suspended Trump’s account. 51.8% voted to allow Trump to return and he was invited back. However, the former president is now using his own Truth Social platform instead and has no plans to return to Twitter.
Musk asks Twitter users if he should step down as head of the social media platform
Musk’s reign at Twitter has been marred by chaos, reversed decisions, hypocrisy, and most importantly a major increase in hate speech. Despite continuing to claim that he is a free speech absolutist, Musk recently banned from Twitter certain journalists who were covering him. He later reversed that decision, one of several times that Musk made a decision and then walked it back. That started with his $44 billion bid for Twitter which he tried to back out of.
Many of the comments on Twitter show that users are skeptical that Musk will actually relinquish control of Twitter even if he loses the poll. Sportswriter Steve Rudden (@SteveRudden) tweeted, “People voting yes do realize that Elon is still going to own Twitter, he’s just going to find someone to take on the day to day operations, but have say in everything, sooo your yes vote is meaningless.”
But as another sportswriter, Wescott Eberts (@SBN_Wescott) pointed out, “It’s absolutely not meaningless to contribute to him being publicly humiliated by this poll.”
