MrBeast says he backs Elon Musk stepping down as Twitter CEO.
Vivien Killilea/Getty Images for TikTok; Michael Gonzalez/Getty Images
MrBeast said Sunday that he backs Twitter owner Elon Musk stepping down as the platform’s CEO.
Musk published a poll on the site on Sunday, asking users to vote on whether he should step down.
MrBeast cited a new Twitter policy, seemingly later retracted, that prohibited the “free promotion” of other social-media sites.
MrBeast, the world’s biggest YouTuber, has said that he backs Twitter owner Elon Musk stepping down as its CEO.
Musk published a poll on the site on Sunday, asking users to vote on whether he should step down. “I will abide by the results of this poll,” he tweeted.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, replied to Musk a few hours after the poll was posted, saying: “If you’re going to keep doing stuff like this, yes. 🤮.”
He shared a link to a new policy released by Twitter over the weekend, which prohibited users from promoting other social-media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Mastodon, or redirecting their followers to their accounts on those platforms.
“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms,” Twitter said. “However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter.”
Twitter appears to have since retracted the policy and removed the explanatory webpage, which had been titled “Promotion of Alternative Social Platforms Policy.”
“Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes,” Musk tweeted afterwards. “My apologies. Won’t happen again.” The company then released a poll on one if its Twitter accounts, asking users whether it should create a policy “preventing the creation of or use of existing accounts for the main purpose of advertising other social media platforms.”
The original policy would have prohibited users from sharing links to other social-media sites or tweeting out their handles, thereby making it difficult for content creators to promote their work and accounts on other platforms.
Donaldson, who has 16.6 million Twitter followers and 121 million subscribers on his main YouTube account, sometimes posts links to his videos on Twitter, though YouTube wasn’t specifically mentioned under the policy.
Donaldson has previously criticized Musk’s vision for Twitter, including his plans to lure YouTubers onto the site by offering them higher pay. “I’d be shocked if you crack that code,” Donaldson tweeted at Musk.
Just over 17.5 million people participated in Musk’s Twitter poll, with 57.5% voting in favor of his stepping down as CEO.