Twitter Shareholder Elon Musk Polls Users Over Edit Button

Tesla CEO Elon Musk lost little time in exercising his newly found influence as Twitter’s largest shareholder, when he posted a poll about the platform.

The poll came just hours after it was made public that Musk had acquired a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, at a cost of $3 billion (£2.3bn).

Last week Musk spoke out against his favoured communication outlet when he said he was giving “serious thought” to building a rival platform, while questioning Twitter’s commitment to free speech.

Edit button

Musk has asked Twitter users whether they want an edit button, but Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal has asked people to vote carefully.

It should be noted that Twitter’s management has resisted the addition of an edit button for years, despite it being commonly requested.

That said in May 2021, Twitter in an effort to clean up the toxic atmosphere on its platform, gave users a ‘reconsider prompt’ if they try to post something nasty or mean.

But now Elon Musk has tweeted the following poll, giving users a simple yes or no option.

As of Tuesday midday, the poll shows that 73.4 percent of Twitter users voted yes, with 26.6 percent voting no.

Did he consult Twitter?

It is not clear whether Musk consulted with, or sought to get Twitter’s input on the poll before going ahead and publishing it on the platform.

But Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, who took over from Jack Dorsey late last year, reacted quickly to the poll when he retweeted it and asked users to consider the consequences and vote carefully.

It should be noted that on 1 April (April Fools’ Day), Twitter had tweeted a message on its official account, saying it was working on the long-awaited “edit” feature.

When asked if the tweet was a joke, the platform had replied, “We cannot confirm or deny but we may edit our statement later.”