Elon Musk has vowed to abide by the results of a public online poll asking Twitter users if he should “step down” as head of the social media platform.

Mr Musk tweeted the 12-hour poll at 11.20pm on Sunday night.

“Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll,” Mr Musk tweeted, along with the options “Yes” or “No”.

The poll attracted more than four million votes within an hour of posting.

That number had ballooned to 12.5 million as of 6am, with 56% of votes in favour of Mr Musk stepping aside.

In a series of separate tweets, Mr Musk said there was “no successor” in line to take over if the poll returns a “Yes” result.

He wrote: “The question is not finding a CEO, the question is finding a CEO who can keep Twitter alive.

“No one wants the job who can actually keep Twitter alive. There is no successor.

“As the saying goes, be careful what you wish, as you might get it.”

Earlier, Mr Musk announced a U-turn on a new policy which banned users from linking to certain rival social media websites, including Facebook, Instagram and Mastodon.

He wrote on Twitter the policy would be “adjusted” to only suspending accounts “when that account’s *primary* purpose is promotion of competitors”, adding: “Going forward, there will be a vote for major policy changes. My apologies. Won’t happen again.”

That initial announcement was the latest move by Mr Musk to crack down on certain speech after he shut down a Twitter account last week that was tracking the flights of his private jet.

Recently, Mr Musk also came under fire from officials in Brussels for booting a series of journalists covering the billionaire off the platform.

European Commissioner Vera Jourova said that the suspensions were “worrying” and that EU law protects media freedom.

Many of those accounts were later restored following an online poll by Mr Musk.