Elon Musk started a Twitter poll late on Friday asking followers to vote on whether to reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump’s account on the platform, with early results showing roughly 60% voting yes.
“Vox Populi, Vox Dei,” Musk tweeted, a Latin phrase that roughly means meaning “the voice of the people is the voice of God.” The poll was open for 24 hours.
Musk, Twitter’s new owner, said in May he would reverse Twitter’s ban on Trump, whose account was suspended after last year’s attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Musk said earlier in the day that a decision to bring back Trump’s account was yet to be made, and that Twitter had reinstated some controversial accounts that had been banned or suspended, including satirical website Babylon Bee and comedian Kathy Griffin.
Musk’s decision to ask Twitter users for guidance on who should be on the platform is part of a huge restructuring of the company, including massive layoffs.
In a memo on Friday to remaining employees that was seen by Reuters, Musk asked those who write software code to report to the 10th floor of the Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco by early afternoon.
The billionaire said in a follow-up email: “If possible, I would appreciate it if you could fly to SF to be present in person,” adding he would be at the office until midnight and would return Saturday morning.
He asked employees to email him a summary of what their software code has “achieved” in the past six months, “along with up to 10 screenshots of the most salient lines of code.”
“There will be short, technical interviews that allow me to better understand the Twitter tech stack,” Musk wrote in one of the emails, and asked engineers to report at 2 p.m. on Friday.
