The people of Twitter have spoken, and Elon Musk is not their CEO

Could Twitter finally become the one institute in America that actually values the popular vote? Via a poll posted last night to his personal account, Twitter head honcho Elon Musk directly asked platform users if they wanted him to remain the company’s CEO—and they said no.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter?” Musk questioned. “I will abide by the results of this poll.” The poll received over 17.5 million votes. The result? 57.5% of voters want to see Musk gone, and 42.5% are willing to let him stay. The replies to the post are equally divided and often descended into decidedly born-online infighting.

Since the deal between Twitter and Musk became official back in April, Musk has struggled to connect with his audience. Introducing inane policy changes, suspending journalists who criticized him, and abruptly laying off staff didn’t exactly help the temperature.

Although Musk claimed he would abide by whatever the poll revealed, no official moves have been made yet. There’s also no clear indication as to who, exactly, would replace Musk if he were to make an abrupt departure, though he did claim after launching the poll that “there is no successor.”

But just because Musk has agreed to the people’s will doesn’t mean he doesn’t have classically cryptic, annoying, and quotable things to say about it. In one tweet immediately following the poll, Musk mused: “As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.” Ok Nicole Scherzinger!

Like with most changes on Twitter of late, a Musk departure feels like a watch-and-wait situation: this could either be real, or another online antic he can add to his treasure trove of trolls. Even during the late October layoffs, when it felt like almost the entire platform tweeted their goodbyes, the platform prevailed— whether or not Musk will remain at the helm just remains to be seen.