Elon Musk launched a Twitter poll late Friday night asking followers to vote on whether former US President Donald Trump’s account should be reinstated on the platform, with early results showing around 60% voting yes.
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, a Latin phrase that roughly translates to “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” The survey was open for 24 hours.
Musk, the new owner of Twitter, said in May that he would lift the Twitter ban on Trump, whose account was suspended after last year’s attack on the US Capitol.
Earlier in the day, Musk said a decision had not yet been made on whether to reinstate Trump’s account, and that Twitter had reinstated some controversial accounts that had been banned or suspended, including satirical website Babylon Bee and comedian Kathy Griffin.
Musk’s decision to ask Twitter users for recommendations on who should be on the platform is part of a massive restructuring of the company, including massive layoffs.
In a Friday memo to remaining employees seen by Reuters, Musk asked those writing software code to report to the 10th floor of Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters by early afternoon.
In a follow-up email, the billionaire said: “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to San Francisco to attend in person,” adding that he would be in the office until midnight and return on Saturday morning.
He asked employees to email him a summary of what their software code had “achieved” in the past six months, “along with 10 screenshots of the most notable lines of code.”
“There will be short technical interviews that will allow me to better understand Twitter’s technology stack,” Musk wrote in one of the emails and asked engineers to report back at 2 p.m. Friday.
The emails come a day after hundreds of Twitter employees are estimated to have decided to leave the beleaguered social network following a Thursday deadline that Musk signed for “long, high-intensity hours.”
The exit adds to the change and chaos that has marked Musk’s first three weeks as Twitter’s owner. He fired senior management, including former CEO Parag Agarwal and senior officials responsible for security and privacy, drawing scrutiny from the regulator.
A White House spokesman also weighed in, saying Twitter should tell Americans how the company protects their data.
Tech website Platformer said Friday that Robin Wheeler, the company’s head of ad sales, has been fired.
Wheeler, who told employees in a memo last week that she would stay, tweeted Friday, “To the team and my customers…you have always been my first and only priority,” with a greeting smiley that was accepted as a send-off by departing employees.
Twitter told employees on Thursday that it would close its offices and shut down access to icons until Monday, two sources said. Reuters could not immediately confirm whether the headquarters had reopened.
On Friday afternoon, the company began shutting down access to company systems for some employees who refused to accept Musk’s offer, three people told Reuters.
Another source said the company plans to close one of Twitter’s three main data centers in the US, at the SMF1 facility near Sacramento, to save costs.
In his first email to Twitter employees this month, Musk warned that Twitter may not be able to “survive the coming economic downturn.” He also said: “We’re also changing Twitter’s policy so that remote work is no longer allowed unless you have a specific exemption.”
Amid these changes, Moody’s withdrew Twitter’s B1 credit rating, saying it did not have enough information to support the rating.
