Only Twitter Blue members to vote on policy related polls in future: Musk

Elon Musk has said that only Twitter Blue subscribers will be able to vote in future policy-related polls on the platform.  

Twitter Blue is a paid subscription service that allows users to purchase a blue tick verified badge for their account. The subscription service costs $8 (roughly ₹660) per month for users accessing Twitter on the web and $11 (roughly ₹900) if used on an Apple device.  

Musk’s comments came since millions of users voted for him to step down as chief executive of the platform. On Sunday, the billionaire said that he would “abide by” the result of a poll, which he created, asking Twitter users whether he should step down. 

The results were confirmed on Monday morning, with 57.5% of the more than 10 million accounts that voted saying he should withdraw from his role.  

Musk did not tweet his immediate decision hours following the poll but later he broke his silence, “after a user, Kim Dotcom, founder of a file-sharing website Megaupload, who suggested that the results of the poll were skewed by fake accounts or bots.  

The user, who calls himself Unfiltered Boss, wrote, "Hey @elonmusk, it's unwise to run a poll like this when you are now deep state enemy #1. They have the biggest bot army on Twitter. They have 100k 'analysts' with 30-40 accounts all voting against you. Let's clean up and then run this poll again. The majority has faith in you."  

Further replying to another user’s suggestion that “Blue subscribers should be the only ones that can vote in policy related polls”, Musk said, “Good point. Twitter will make that change.”  

Musk, who acquired Twitter on October 27, at roughly $44 billion has taken some of the biggest decisions since then, from firing its top executives, to laying off half of the company's staff, forming a content moderation council that will review account reinstatements and revamping the platform's subscription service.  Last week, he had accused some journalists of endangering his family and also suspended accounts of some journalists for writing about him. What sparked this latest controversy was the suspension of an account that tracked his private jet. The move was criticised by many worldwide including journalists and press associations. 

Following another poll, Twitter recently unveiled a policy update prohibiting the sharing of live location information, stating that it will remove tweets that share this information. Accounts dedicated to sharing someone else’s live location will be suspended.