Musk expresses doubts on reliability of Twitter CEO poll

Musk expresses doubts on reliability of Twitter CEO poll

In a poll, 57 percent of voters said they were in favor of Elon Musk stepping down just eight weeks after he took ownership of Twitter
In a poll, 57 percent of voters said they were in favor of Elon Musk stepping down just eight weeks after he took ownership of Twitter. Photo: Chris DELMAS / AFP/File
Source: AFP

Elon Musk on Tuesday said that he doubted the reliability of a Twitter poll in which a majority of votes said he should step down as a CEO of the company.

Musk, who became sole owner of the platform on October 27, said earlier he would abide by the poll results but in a series of tweets, the tycoon indicated his belief that the vote may have been rigged by bots.

In the poll results which were posted on Monday, 57 percent of voters, or 10 million votes, favored Musk stepping down just eight weeks after he took ownership of the company for $44 billion.

But polling company HarrisX on Tuesday tweeted out their own poll of Twitter users, in which 61 percent of respondents voted to keep Musk as CEO.

"Interesting. Suggest that maybe we might still have an itsy bitsy bot problem on Twitter..." Musk said in a response.

Read also

Twitter to ban users from promoting rival social platforms

HarrisX said the findings "debunk" the vote on Twitter, adding that the poll was run independently of "Twitter or any Elon Musk related organizations."

PAY ATTENTION: Enjoy reading our stories? Join YEN.com.gh's Telegram channel for more!

This came after Musk endorsed another tweet suggesting the Twitter poll had been overtaken by bots. He also said that any future polls would be limited to Twitter's paying subscribers.

Musk has used the Twitter polls to take controversial decisions on the platform, including the reinstatement of the account of former US president Donald Trump and other suspended users.

The results of his latest poll on Monday briefly boosted the share price in his electric car company Tesla with investors hopeful that Musk would spend less time at Twitter.

CNBC and Bloomberg reported that Musk was carrying out a search for a new Twitter CEO, citing anonymous sources, but the Tesla and SpaceX owner ridiculed the report with a laughing emoji on Twitter.

Source: AFP

Authors:
AFP avatar

AFP AFP text, photo, graphic, audio or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. AFP news material may not be stored in whole or in part in a computer or otherwise except for personal and non-commercial use. AFP will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions in any AFP news material or in transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages whatsoever. As a newswire service, AFP does not obtain releases from subjects, individuals, groups or entities contained in its photographs, videos, graphics or quoted in its texts. Further, no clearance is obtained from the owners of any trademarks or copyrighted materials whose marks and materials are included in AFP material. Therefore you will be solely responsible for obtaining any and all necessary releases from whatever individuals and/or entities necessary for any uses of AFP material.