Opinion Elon Musk, get off the soap box

Considering that this is the man who kicked off one of the more tumultuous chapters in the history of Twitter with a poll — “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle? (March 25, 2022)” — Elon Musk’s turn to vox populi on the question of his role at the social media company was only surprising for one reason. Few expected him to risk a “yes” verdict. “Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of the poll,” the billionaire tweeted on December 18. When the poll closed, 57.5 per cent of the 17.5 million votes were in favour of “yes”.

If one of the defining characteristics of the internet age is user-generated content, then Musk’s chaotic leadership of Twitter has been, as they say on the internet, “peak Web 2.0”. In the weeks since he got behind the wheel of the company on October 27, Musk has veered from one controversy to the another — mass layoffs, reinstating Donald Trump’s account, launch of paid verification, followed by its rollback — generating enough content to keep the commentariat busy for months to come. Almost all of this has played out in public, on Twitter, frequently fueled by Musk’s own tweets.

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It is possible that the polls — whether to bring back Trump and other users who were “deplatformed” before his takeover or whether to restore the suspended accounts of journalists who had allegedly violated Twitter policies — are meant to turn the platform he owns into the public square he claims it is. If that is indeed the case, it might help for Musk to loosen his very firm grip on the megaphone and get off the soapbox. As it stands now, whether he remains CEO or not, Twitter seems to be turning into a one-man show.