“Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll,” Musk tweeted on Sunday.

Some 57.5 percent of the 17.5 million votes said that he should step down, while 42.5 percent said he should not, in what were billed as final results.

After buying the social media site in October for $44 billion, Musk’s leadership of Twitter has been mired in controversy.

When he took over the company in mid-October, Musk immediately fired almost half of the company’s employees.

Musk, a long-time advocate of “free speech,” separately came under fire last week for suspending several accounts of journalists. Musk said he did this because the reporters allegedly endangered his family by “doxing,” or sharing non-public information, about his location. The journalists have since had their accounts re-instated.

Twitter has also been criticized for bringing in a policy that bans users from promoting competing social media platforms.

“We recognize that many of our users are active on other social media platforms. However, we will no longer allow free promotion of certain social media platforms on Twitter,” Twitter Support’s official account tweeted on Sunday. “Specifically, we will remove accounts created solely for the purpose of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames for the following platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Truth Social, Tribel, Nostr and Post.”

Under Musk, Twitter also introduced a monthly $8 fee to have your account verified with the blue checkmark. Previously, this function would only be awarded if the user was a celebrity, official, large company or another significant figure. The controversial move led to many people who decided to pay for verification to masquerade as celebrities and politicians.

Musk previously told a court in November that he would step down as CEO and appoint a successor.

Even if Musk steps down as CEO, as owner of Twitter, he will still have power to make many of the key decisions.

Several investors in Tesla have publicly urged Musk to stand down as Twitter CEO as the stock has nearly halved to $150 since mid-September. After it looked like Musk would lose the poll he set and resign, on Monday morning, Tesla shares gained 4.5 percent in pre-market trading to above $157—up from just over $150 Friday.

Daniel Ives, managing director and senior equity research analyst at Wedbush Securities, wrote in an email on Monday: “Time to end this nightmare as CEO of Twitter. From the botched verification subscription plan to banning journalists to political firestorms caused on a daily basis its been the perfect storm as advertisers have run for the hills and left Twitter squarely in the red ink potentially on track to lose roughly $4 billion per year we estimate.

“More red ink means funding gaps causing Musk to sell more Tesla stock which has been used as his own personal ATM machine since this saga began in April.

“As such, this has been a black eye moment for Musk and been a major overhang on Tesla’s stock which continues to suffer in a brutal way since the Twitter soap opera began with brand deterioration related to Musk a real issue. Musk is Tesla and Tesla is Musk. Attention focused on Twitter instead of golden child Tesla has been another big issue for investors and likely is behind this poll results with many Musk loyalists wanting him to leave as CEO of Twitter.”

Ives said it would be “a major positive” for Tesla’s stock if Musk is removed as CEO.

Newsweek has contacted Twitter for comment.