Now that he’s a majority shareholder of Twitter, Elon Musk has asked his followers if he should turn the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters into a homeless shelter.
In a poll shared earlier today (10 April), the Tesla CEO wrote: “Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway.”
Nearly one million people have responded to the poll, with 91.1% saying ‘yes’ to his question at the time of writing.
Whether he’ll follow through with the idea is yet to be seen, but judging by his usual social media activity it could very well be a quip to comment on the fact that ‘no one shows up’ to the San Francisco office.
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One person shared Musk’s tweet, writing: “Elon Musk to Twitter employees: ‘F* your workplace flexibility, I'm gonna publicly shame you then force you into the office like I did at Tesla’.”
Another wrote: “You're the richest person in the world, don't pretend like you suddenly care about homeless population.
“You could give away a fraction of your wealth and do much more for them than the Twitter HQ could ever do.”
That being said, many people are in favour of the idea, with one writing: “Donate 50% of the profit from Twitter Blue subscriptions to keep the shelter running.”
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A second wrote: “Could be a world-class facility with job retraining, detox and overdose prevention services, internet skills building, link to permanent housing across the country, comprehensive medical services, and beyond!
“Show folks how to do it right!”
The 50-year-old businessman recently became the single-largest shareholder in Twitter after buying 9.2 percent of the company.
The SpaceX founder took a $2.89 billion stake in the social media platform, giving him a share almost four times greater than its founder, Jack Dorsey.
Shortly after the HQ idea, Musk tweeted another poll, this time asking if his followers think they should remove the ‘w’ in Twitter – so it would be Titter.
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But instead of giving voters the option to write ‘yes’ or ‘no’, he offered ‘yes’ and ‘of course’ - someone’s having fun with their newfound shares.
In response to the poll, which has received nearly 600k votes, one person wrote: “Titter, I just titted something, can you pls retit my tit… right?”
Others were not so fond of the joke, with one commenting: “And we thought Elon Musk will fight for freedom of speech on Twitter. Dude went straight to breasts.”
What Musk’s intentions behind buying such a large stake in Twitter is yet to be seen, but some fans think it’s all just to ban the account of the teenager who was tracking his private jet trips.
The teenager in question is 19-year-old Jack Sweeney, who made headlines after creating @ElonJet, which does what it says on the tin – it makes a post on Twitter every time the jet takes off and lands in a location.
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Musk wasn't too happy about his jet's movements being broadcasted to the public, even though the information is freely available to anyone who looks it up.
In a bid to silence the jet gazer, the SpaceX founder offered Sweeney $5,000 to shut it down.
Sweeney declined and demanded $50,000 instead, a deal Musk turned down and proceeded to block the teen on Twitter.
Daisy Phillipson