Elon Musk announces resignation as Twitter boss

Elon Musk has announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter. A successor has been found who will take over in about six weeks, Musk said in a tweet on Thursday.

As CTO, he wants to focus on more specific business areas such as products and software in the future.

Musk had already announced at the end of 2022 that he wanted to give up the top position – but only after the successor had been arranged. He had taken over the top job as part of his purchase of the internet platform for about $44 billion in October. Musk had always indicated that this was not a permanent solution. He also heads electric car maker Tesla and rocket company SpaceX.

Musk’s six months as “Head of Twitter” were marked by chaos and controversy. After a series of highly controversial decisions, the headwind increased. His December resignation announcement resulted in a self-initiated Twitter poll in which about 57.5 percent of participants supported his resignation. Musk had previously assured that he would abide by the result of the vote.

Musk’s Twitter purchase aroused suspicion from the start. The multi-billionaire justified the takeover as a move to strengthen freedom of speech. However, critics feared further brutalization of the internet platform. They feared that the ownership change could lead to more rampant hate speech, hate speech and disinformation.

So far, Musk has been unable to address these concerns. On the contrary: With a wave of layoffs, erratic rule changes and other controversial decisions, he shook the online network and frightened advertisers – its main source of income. (sda/dpa)