San Francisco, California - The people have spoken – and Elon Musk won't like what they had to say. In a Twitter poll that he promised to abide by, well over half the 17.5 million respondents voted for the platform's CEO to step down.

After yet another poll backfired on the Tesla boss, all eyes are now on his vow to respect the final result.

"Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll," he tweeted on Sunday, presumably from Qatar, where he was taking in the most astonishing World Cup final in history alongside Jared Kushner.

About 12 hours later, he had a resounding answer: 57% of users said yes.

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It's safe to say that won't be the end of the story, though. In a series of separate tweets before the results came in, Musk said there was "no successor" in line to take over the company.

He wrote: "The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive."

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

As the hours ticked by and the "yes" votes piled on, the erratic billionaire added: "As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it."

The latest round of Twitter chaos came after Musk announced a U-turn on a new policy which banned users from linking to certain rival social media websites, including Facebook, Instagram, and Mastodon.

He tweeted that the policy would be "adjusted" to only suspending accounts "when that account's *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors."

Unusually, he also took some responsibility: "Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won't happen again."

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That initial announcement was the latest move by Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet.

Recently, Musk also came under fire for booting a series of journalists covering him off the platform, the latest of which was Washington Post tech columnist Taylor Lorenz, who was banned on Saturday after tweeting a request for comment.

Her account was reinstated on Sunday.