Elon Musk says he will resign as Twitter's CEO, once he finds a replacement

Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Elon Musk has confirmed he will resign as Twitter's chief executive officer as soon as he finds a replacement.

While Musk will remain the company's owner, he made his resignation as Twitter CEO official Tuesday evening in a tweet.

"I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software and servers teams," Musk said.

The billionaire's announcement comes more than a day after millions of Twitter users responded to a poll he posted questioning whether he should step down as the company's new CEO.

The poll closed on Monday after 12 hours and more than 17 million votes, with more than 57% saying yes, Musk should resign.

Musk had previously indicated that he would eventually appoint someone else to serve as Twitter's CEO, explaining that "once Twitter is set on the right path, I think it is a much easier thing to manage" when compared to his other holdings, Tesla and SpaceX.

Musk became Twitter's new CEO in October after purchasing the social media giant for $44 billion.

Since taking over, Musk has faced backlash for laying off about 50% of the company's workers and reinstating a number of banned accounts, including former President Donald Trump's. He also faced criticism for suspending the accounts of several prominent U.S. journalists for what he called "doxxing."

"You doxx, you get suspended. End of story. That's it," Musk said Friday, referring to the practice of sharing personal information including a person's location online.

Musk, who has been known for making decisions based on Twitter polls, also stirred controversy for banning and then unbanning links to other media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram and fast-growing Twitter rival Mastodon.

On Sunday, Musk was asked whether he had a successor.

"No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive," Musk tweeted. "There is no successor."