NEW YORK : Amidst mass lay off and resignations in social media Twitter platform, Elon Musk has asked staff to start a Twitter poll asking followers to vote on whether to reinstate former US president Donald Trump’s account on the platform. Early results showed roughly 60% voting yes.
Musk’s emails came a day after reports indicated between 1,000 and 1,200 Twitter employees decided to quit the beleaguered social media company following a Thursday deadline from Musk that staffers sign up for “long hours at high intensity”, or leave. The New York Times also reported on the email and employee decisions.
In true Twitter fashion, dozens of employees tweeted their resignations with a version of the internal company slogan #lovewhereyouworked. “I may be #exceptional, but gosh darn it, I’m just not #hardcore,” tweeted Andrea Horst, who worked on supply chain and capacity management at Twitter.
Posting his poll on whether to reinstate Trump to the platform, Musk tweeted “Vox Populi, Vox Dei”, using a Latin phrase that roughly means “the voice of the people is the voice of God”. The poll was open for 24 hours.
Musk said in May he would reverse Twitter’s ban on Trump, whose account was suspended after last year’s attack on the US Capitol.
Musk said earlier on Friday that a decision to bring back Trump’s account was yet to be made, and that Twitter had reinstated some accounts that had been banned or suspended, including satirical website Babylon Bee – and the comedian Kathy Griffin who was suspended after changing her name on Twitter to Elon Musk.