Elon Musk Says He’s Stepping Down as Twitter CEO, But Not Right Away

() — Twitter owner Elon Musk confirmed Tuesday night that he will step down as CEO of the company, but only when he finds a successor, speaking directly for the first time about the Twitter poll he created this week in which Millions of users voted for his removal.

In a tweet, Musk said he would resign “as soon as I find someone dumb enough to take the job.”

He added that following his resignation as CEO, Musk “will lead the software and server teams” at Twitter, indicating that he can continue to exert significant influence on company decision-making.

The announcement comes after remaining silent for more than a day regarding the poll result. On Monday, after more than 17 million users voted — 57.5% of whom said Musk should resign — the billionaire addressed the results only indirectly. He suggested that future Twitter polls could be restricted to paying users of Twitter Blue, the company’s subscription service.

Musk’s poll asking users whether he should resign as CEO came after massive backlash to Twitter’s abrupt suspension of several journalists covering him, as well as Twitter’s decision to ban, and then overturn the ban, links to other social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon, a fast-growing rival of Twitter that has grown eightfold since October.