More than half of the 17.5 million users who responded to a Twitter poll created by billionaire Elon Musk over whether he should step down as head of the company had voted yes by the time the poll closed on Monday.

A total of 57.5 per cent voted "yes" after Musk asked his 122 million followers whether he should stand down.

There was no immediate announcement from Twitter, or Musk, about whether that would happen, though Musk said that he would abide by the results.

According to BBC, the technology tycoon, who also runs Tesla and SpaceX, has faced criticism since taking over the company. Even if he were to resign as chief executive, he would remain as owner of Twitter.

In the past, Musk has respected Twitter polls. A former Twitter member of staff, who left the company recently, told the BBC that Musk was "showing himself to be the incompetent fool we all knew he was".

Speaking on condition of anonymity, they added: "His investors are surely looking at this now and questioning whether he was the right horse to back.

"I imagine he&039;s getting pressure from investors to step down and is using this poll to make it look like he's following the will of the people instead of the will of those paying his bills."

Minutes before the poll closed, the founder of crypto exchange Binance replied to Musk saying he should "stay the course" and not step down.

Changpeng Zhao is thought to be one of Twitter's investors and said in May he had backed Musk taking over by making a $500m investment.

The latest poll by Musk followed yet another significant policy change since the billionaire acquired Twitter in October. Twitter had announced that users will no longer be able to link to Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon and other platforms the company described as "prohibited.”