Elon Musk uses Twitter/X poll to decide Doge policy as row over email to federal employees intensifies

After Twitter/X owner Elon Musk lost his own position as CEO of the social media platform back in December 2022 thanks to a poll on the platform, you would think the billionaire - now a close ally of US president Donald Trump as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge) – would steer clear of letting the masses make big decisions for him.

Well… nope.

On Saturday, Musk sparked criticism online after he announced federal employees would be sent an email asking “what they got done last week”, with a “failure to respond” being taken “as a resignation”.

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union representing federal government employees, slammed the move as “cruel and disrespectful” and said it would “challenge any unlawful terminations”, but Musk later doubled down and said “the bar is very low” for a satisfactory response.

“A large number of good responses have been received already. These are the people who should be considered for promotion,” he said.

Now, though, Musk seems to want to let his social media followers have the final say on whether federal employees should have received such an email in the first place – in other words, whether his policy, made as part of the US government, is a good one.

Yes, really.

The vote has since been branded a “power trip” and “authoritarian” on Twitter/X:

Another questioned the efficiency of asking every federal employee – of which there are millions – to send in an email, given efficiency is kind of Doge’s entire thing:

At the time of writing, more than 620,000 votes have been cast, with 76 per cent backing ‘yes’ and 23 per cent voting for ‘no’.

Why not read…

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