What could happen next after Twitter users vote for Elon Musk to resign

Elon Musk appears to have boxed himself into a corner after polling Twitter users to ask if he should step down as CEO.

The poll ended with 57.5% of 17.5 million voters saying he should resign as boss of the social media platform.

Mr Musk put the question to users on Sunday night after watching Argentina beat France in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar.

"Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," he tweeted, along with the options "Yes" or "No".

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO only took over the platform two months ago, after completing a $44 billion takeover in October.

Whether Mr Musk will follow through with the poll remains to be seen, but he has honoured his previous polls.

This includes when he asked users when to unsuspend accounts of journalists who he accused of "doxxing" his location.

If he does step down, what could the move mean for the site's future?

Here, ITV News takes a look at what could happen next.

What if Musk steps down?

Some commentators have suggested that very little may actually change if Mr Musk does give up his role as chief executive of Twitter.

This is because he still owns the company and ultimately can have the final say on any major decisions.

During a court case linked to Tesla, Mr Musk said he expected to "find somebody else to run Twitter" and "reduce" his own time at the company - so his poll may always have been part of the plan.

Whatever the case, it is likely that creating more distance between himself and the platform would affect how quickly and drastically the site changes going forward.

A different chief executive in place – no matter who it was – could have the ability to balance the substantial and often hectic and chaotic shift in policy that has occurred since Mr Musk’s arrival.

This has included allowing suspended accounts to return, restructuring the verification process, and softening Twitter’s approach to content moderation – all of which have drawn criticism.

There have been reports that shareholders in Mr Musk’s other firms would be happier with someone else being in charge of day-to-day decisions.

They hope this would prevent further damage to the billionaire's wider credibility, business portfolio and shareholders’ returns.

Concerns have also been raised about Mr Musk’s habit of using Twitter polls to decide on major decisions, as it has been argued the process is far from scientific and is open to manipulation by coordinated bot accounts.

Any replacement CEO would likely be encouraged to not use such a public and unpredictable process for major policymaking.

What if he decides to stay on?

A U-turn would not be an unusual move for the tech entrepreneur.

Over the weekend he appeared to reverse a controversial policy change which intended to stop users sharing links to certain rival social media platforms.

Tweets from an official Twitter account and a webpage detailing the new policy were deleted and Mr Musk apologised, showing he is capable of going back on plans even after they go live.

So a sudden decision to ignore the poll result is not out of the question, but it does seem unlikely given how seriously he's taken them on previous occasions, often while referencing the Latin phrase "vox populi", meaning "voice of the people".

Should he choose to stay in post, he is likely to face more scrutiny than ever over his running of the company.

He can expect further criticism from regulators around the world and Tesla shareholders, who have seen stock values slide in the aftermath of Mr Musk’s Twitter takeover.

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