Elon Musk | The straw that broke the camel

Notable Twitter users were suspended without warning or explanation, then suddenly reinstated. A new policy to prevent users from sharing links and usernames from other social platforms was put in place and then apparently scaled back.

Anger, even among Musk’s group in Silicon Valley, has sparked what appears to be a crisis of confidence on the part of the 51-year-old billionaire, who was photographed earlier in the day attending the World Cup final in Qatar with Jared Kushner.

Should I step down from running Twitter? Elon Musk tweeted Sunday night after Twitter users continued to question his actions.

By early evening in San Francisco, nearly 6 million users had responded, and the 24-hour survey tilted toward “yes.”

Musk, who often has his wings in the big moments, said he will abide by Twitter users’ decision, whatever it may be. He said no successor has been identified.

Since the middle of last week, Twitter users have grown increasingly angry about Mr. Musk’s estate.

It all started on Wednesday when Twitter banned more than 25 accounts that tracked the whereabouts of private jets — including Mr. Musk’s — using publicly available information. While Musk previously promised to allow the account, known as ElonJet, to stay online, he later said he considered the accounts, which also track the planes of oligarchs, government agencies and celebrities, to be a security risk.

Musk justified his action by outlining Twitter’s new policy that bans accounts if they share someone else’s “live location”.

On Thursday, Musk used the Twitter account of alternative social network Mastodon to ban Mastodon after it used its account to announce @ElonJet’s new presence on its platform. He also suspended the accounts of journalists from the newspaper The New York Timesthe Washington PostCNN and other outlets after sharing some links or screenshots of Mastodon’s tweet promoting ElonJet (including that of Ryan Mac, a journalist at times and co-author of this article).

The suspension was lifted on Friday after Mr. Musk asked his followers if the accounts should be reinstated and 59% of respondents said yes. But in the meantime, criticism has been piling up.

“If Twitter owner Elon Musk is serious about promoting a platform that allows free speech for everyone, it makes no sense to remove journalists from the platform,” CPJ chair Jodi Ginsburg said in a statement at the time. .

Then, this past Saturday, Twitter suspended the account of Taylor Lorenz, a journalist at Washington Post, after I posted a letter asking Mr. Musk to comment on an upcoming article. Then Mr. Musk said that Mr.^me Lorenz was suspended for “pre-defamation,” i.e. sharing non-public identifying information online. M^me Lorenz does not appear to have disclosed any personal information in his apparent tweets.

Remove accounts from other social networks

On Sunday, Twitter took it a step further. The company suddenly announced a new policy stating that it will no longer allow accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Mastodon. Musk said the change was made to prevent “relentless advertising by competitors for free, which is utterly ridiculous.”

This action has proven to be very unpopular with users, who are used to open social networks where posts and videos can be easily shared across platforms.

The new policy also appears to contradict Mr. Musk’s statements about his commitment to an open web and greater transparency in company decisions.

Graham, the founder of Y Combinator who endorsed Mr. Musk’s takeover, tweeted that new rules prohibiting promoting other competing platforms led him to “dump” Twitter and told his followers to go find him on Mastodon. Then Twitter suspended Mr. Graham’s account. (Elon Musk later said Paul Graham’s account would be restored.)

Other Silicon Valley tech experts and venture capitalists said they have finished using Twitter and are starting to explore other services. Ben McKenzie, an actor and notorious cryptocurrency skeptic, said he is taking a break from Twitter, adding: “This site is not as fun as it used to be.” Other users have accused Mr. Musk of acting like a dictator.

Elon Musk is starting to back off. He amended the new policy so that only accounts whose primary goal was to promote competitors would be suspended.

“From now on, there will be a vote on major political changes,” he wrote on Twitter. I apologize. This will not happen again. »

Moments later, Mr. Musk asked his followers if he should step down from his leadership role at Twitter. He promised to abide by their response, but then added, “No one wants this post that can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.”

This article was originally published in The New York Times.