It took months for Elon Musk's hostile takeover of Twitter to be finalized and now, just weeks into his tenure as the social media company's CEO, he's announced that he'll step down after the platform's users voted for him to pass the baton.
As Townhall reported at the time, Musk ran a Twitter poll on December 18 asking whether he should "step down as head of Twitter." Some 57 percent of more than 17.5 million users who voted in the poll said "yes."
Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2022
While he was mum on the poll's outcome for a few days, Musk is abiding by the outcome of the vote — as he's done with previous decisions put to a Twitter version of direct democracy such as whether to reinstate Donald Trump's account.
In a Tweet on Tuesday evening, Musk announced that he "will resign as CEO," but that depends on him finding "someone foolish enough to take the job." Musk added that he will continue working on Twitter's innards as head of the company's software and servers teams.
I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software & servers teams.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 21, 2022
Musk's announcement comes as his work with independent journalists to release the "Twitter Files" continues to show how the platform had a cozy relationship with the FBI, Pentagon, and Democrats — and often made up excuses for its censorship of users.
Conservatives reacted to Musk's news on Twitter Tuesday night, with some asking Musk to stay on as CEO and others seeking assurances from Musk that the company won't return to its censorious ways:
Don’t resign. You are our only hope!
— Mercedes Schlapp (@mercedesschlapp) December 21, 2022
As long as you don't turn @Twitter back over to the FBI.
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) December 21, 2022