Twitter users vote for Elon Musk to step down - but will he keep his promise?

Twitter users have voted in their millions for its controversial chief executive Elon Musk to step down.

The big question for Twitter's CEO is whether Musk will respect the results of his own Twitter poll, and whether it will spell the end of what has been a turbulent two months at the helm of the social media platform.

In a vote posted on Sunday evening, after Musk had attended the World Cup final in Doha, Qatar, he asked his 122 million Twitter followers: "Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll."

After the poll closed at 11.20am on Monday, of the 17.5 million users that voted, 57.5% said he should resign and 42.5% said he should remain Twitter's boss.

It is unclear if Musk would respect the results and actually step down after just two months in charge of Twitter.

Last week he removed a poll on reinstating the accounts of suspended journalists before it had concluded.

Since he posted the poll about his future, the illionaire Tesla boss has also tweeted that people should be careful what they wish for, but denied that he has already selected his potential replacement.

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“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor,” he said.

Overnight, Musk also liked a tweet reading: “When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus."

Earlier, Musk announced a U-turn on a new policy which banned users from linking to certain rival social media websites, including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon.

He wrote on Twitter the policy would be “adjusted” to only suspending accounts “when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors".

He added: “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

That initial announcement was the latest move by Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet.

Recently, Musk also came under fire from officials in Brussels for ejected a series of journalists off Twitter for covering the billionaire off the platform.

European Commissioner Vera Jourova said that the suspensions were “worrying” and that EU law protects media freedom.

Many of those accounts were later restored following an online poll by Musk.