Elon Musk to step down as Twitter CEO, announces replacement

Elon Musk has announced he is stepping down from the top job at a Twitter.

The controversial billionaire, who sensationally bought the social media platform in October 2022 for $US44 billion, revealed he had already selected an unnamed female replacement for the CEO role, who will take over in around six weeks.

Musk’s role will “transition to being exec chair and chief technology officer (CTO), overseeing product, software & sysops”.

He had always planned to remain in the CEO role temporarily, previously revealing he only intended to overhaul the company before handing over the reins.

He had also spoken out about having “too much work” and sleeping at the social media juggernaut’s San Francisco headquarters while rolling out massive changes.

His exit from the top job comes after an embarrassing incident in December, when he asked Twitter if he should vacate the position – and 57.5 per cent of more than 17 million Twitter accounts said yes.

“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job!” Musk tweeted at the time.

His announcement has been welcomed by critics, who have accused him of damaging the Twitter brand.

“WHAT TOOK U SO LONG??? RUINED THIS APP,” one person posted, with another adding: “ … have you considered transitioning to another company instead? Seems like there is most likely (definitely probably) a better fit out there. Better for us, at least.”

The backlash comes after months of turmoil, which included the firing of the majority of Twitter employees – with many others quitting of their own accord.

Other controversial moves included reinstating a slew of far-right personalities who had been suspended from Twitter, suspending reporters and introducing charges.

Last month, for example, countless celebrities began to see their coveted Twitter blue ticks disappear after refusing to pay for verification.

For years, certain Twitter accounts – such as those belonging to stars, public figures and companies – came with a famous blue tick, which indicated that the accounts were genuine and had been verified in order to prevent impersonation.

However, soon after taking over the social media giant, the eccentric billionaire announced plans to make verification subscription-only, even for legacy accounts that had long been verified.

Under the controversial new rules, blue ticks have now been removed from accounts which do not pay for it, with less than 1 per cent of Twitter users signing up for the paid service.

Verification doesn’t come cheap, with an $US8 ($11.80) per month price tag for a blue tick for individuals, and $US1000 ($1484) per month for a gold one for organisations.

Grey ticks will be in place for government-affiliated accounts or multilateral organisations.

The change has sparked fears that fraudsters and troublemakers will now be able to impersonate famous people or companies with greater ease, now the verification is removed from so many accounts.

Musk’s running of Twitter has also been slammed for taking his attention away from his other high-profile jobs running Tesla and SpaceX, and has also made headlines for the social media platform’s drop in revenue – which mostly comes from advertising and which is tipped to be less than $US3 billion this year, compared with $US4 billion in 2022.

He recently announced Twitter was “trending to break even” after previously claiming it was facing bankruptcy.

In recent weeks, Musk moved Twitter under the umbrella of his “X” shell corporation, meaning that while Twitter was still used on the platform, the company name was officially defunct.

He has also spoken out about using Twitter to build an all-purpose “X” application that combines messages, payments and more.

He this week announced encrypted direct messages at Twitter, and that audio and video calls are going to be added to the platform.

Meanwhile, speculation is turning to who might step into the CEO position.

Among those rumoured to be in the running are Ella Irwin, who works on trust and safety at Twitter, SpaceX’s President and COO Gwynne Shotwell, Tesla’s board of directors chair Robyn Denholm and Linda Yaccarino, who runs ads and partnerships for NBCUniversal.