Elon Musk actively searching for new Twitter CEO: Report

Billionaire Elon Musk is reportedly searching for a new chief executive officer for Twitter, Reuters quoted CNBC as saying on Tuesday. Twitter users voted on Monday to oust owner Musk in a poll he organised and promised to honour, just weeks after he took charge of the social media giant.

Musk, who also runs car maker Tesla and rocket firm SpaceX, said that Twitter will restrict voting on policy-related polls to paying Twitter Blue subscribers, on the same day that users voted decisively in a poll for him to step down as chief executive of the social media platform.

The billionaire responded to a suggestion from a Twitter Blue subscriber, who said only subscribers should get a vote on policy polls, with "Good point. Twitter will make that change", without specifying when the change would come into effect.

About 57.5% of over 17 million accounts voted for him to step down. "The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive," the South African-born billionaire tweeted before the vote closed.

In a response to another tweet, he added: "No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor."

Musk has fully owned Twitter since October 27 and has repeatedly courted controversy as CEO, sacking half of its staff, readmitting far-right figures to the platform, suspending journalists and trying to charge for previously free services.

Musk has generated a series of controversies in his short reign, one which analyst Dan Ives from Wedbush described as a "perfect storm."

He noted that "advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly $4 billion per year."

Shortly after taking over the platform, Musk announced it would charge $8 per month to verify account holders' identities, but had to suspend the "Twitter Blue" plan after an embarrassing rash of fake accounts.

Twitter re-enabled Twitter Blue sign ups earlier this month, with accounts for individuals getting a blue check, while gold and gray check marks will denote business and government accounts.

The monthly subscription price for the service is $8 on the web and $11 on Apple devices, respectively.

On November 4, with Musk saying the company was losing $4 million a day, Twitter laid off half of its 7,500-strong staff.

Musk also reinstated Trump's account -- though the former US president indicated he had no interest in the platform -- and said Twitter would no longer work to combat Covid-19 disinformation.

In recent days, he suspended the accounts of several journalists after complaining some had published details about the movements of his private jet, which he claimed could endanger his family.

Employees of CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post were among those affected in a move that drew sharp criticism, including from the European Union and the United Nations.

Washington Post executive editor Sally Buzbee said the suspension of journalist Taylor Lorenz's account "further undermines Elon Musk's claim that he intends to run Twitter as a platform dedicated to free speech."

Some of the suspended accounts have since been reactivated.

On Monday, the head of the European Parliament, speaker Roberta Metsola, sent a letter to Musk inviting him to testify before the legislature, her spokesman said.

The parliament has no power to compel Musk to turn up, and his response was not immediately known.