Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter was one of 2022's biggest tech headlines. He bought the social media platform in October of last year and has since introduced a series of changes to the app that caused quite a stir on the Internet.
But as he nears five months as the Chief Twit, he recently expressed his hopes to find a new replacement by the end of 2023.
This illustration photo taken May 13, 2022, displays Elon Musks Twitter account with a Twitter logo in the background in Los Angeles. - Elon Musk sent mixed messages Friday about his proposed Twitter acquisition, pressuring shares of the microblogging platform amid skepticism on whether the deal will close. In an early morning tweet, Musk said the $44 billion takeover was "temporarily on hold," pending questions over the social media company's estimates of the number of fake accounts or "bots." That sent Twitter's stock plunging 25 percent.
The billionaire said in December that he will only resign from his post after finding a replacement who is "foolish enough" to be the new Twitter CEO.
"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," Musk said in a tweet after asking his followers via a poll if he should step down or not. 57% of the respondents agreed that he must resign and 42.5% said "No."
Will Musk Resign as Chief Twit?
Musk said on Wednesday, Feb. 15, via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, that the expects to find a new Chief Twit by the end of this year but noted that his main priority at the moment is to ensure that Twitter performs at its optimum, according to a report by AP.
He said that he has to stabilize the company first and ensure that it is a financially healthy place.
"I'm guessing probably toward the end of this year would be good timing to find someone else to run the company," Musk said in a statement, quoted by AP.
However, Musk's remarks may have to be taken with a grain of salt since there is no certainty that he is serious about the deadline. He did say in the December poll that he would abide by the pulse of the Twitter public if they wanted him to remain or step down as the CEO.
A majority of the poll's respondents believe that he should resign from his post.
Musk has been very clear about his free speech absolutist stance even before buying the bird app. This proved to be true as he reinstated Donald Trump to the platform after the former president was alleged to have "incited violence" during the Capitol riot in January 2021.
He also brought back the accounts of those who spread misinformation about COVID-19 such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. The platform recently halted its efforts against COVID-19 misinformation as well.
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