Technology entrepreneur Thomas Anderson—best known as the co-founder of MySpace and who is popularly known as "Tom from MySpace" because he would automatically be assigned as the first "friend" of new MySpace users upon the creation of their profiles—has gone viral for his response to billionaire Elon Musk's Twitter poll about stepping down from company leadership.
A Twitter poll Musk created asking whether he should “step down as head of Twitter” ended yesterday morning with most respondents voting "yes."
Musk said he would abide by the results of the poll, which came about after he walked back a policy that suspended accounts for linking out to competing social media sites.
You can see the poll Musk created below.
\u201cShould I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll.\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671405633
While Musk hasn't made public any plans to step down, the search is on for a new chief executive for Twitter, according to sources who spoke to CNBC's David Faber. They told Faber there has been an ongoing search for a new CEO even before the Twitter poll was made.
One of the thousands of Twitter users who commented on Musk's poll was none other than Anderson himself, who wrote the following in regard to the hunt for a new CEO:
"Depends who you get to run it!"
You can see Anderson's post below.
\u201c@elonmusk Depends who you get to run it ! \ud83e\udd14\u201d— Elon Musk (@Elon Musk) 1671405633
Anderson's tweet quickly went viral and prompted many to suggest that he would make a far better CEO than Musk, whose stewardship of the social media platform has been rocked by numerous scandals.
\u201cBecause Tom from MySpace becoming Twitter CEO might dislodge us from this timeline and make the world normal again, RT for Tom\u201d— Matt Lipton (@Matt Lipton) 1671428999
\u201cI could get behind the era of MySpace Tom, \u201cEveryone\u2019s Friend\u201d running Twitter\u201d— slowbeef (@slowbeef) 1671430535
\u201cCan we all agree this is the only correct choice?\u201d— Fuck You I Quit (@Fuck You I Quit) 1671491574
\u201cElon Musk is running Twitter so badly that he brought Tom from MySpace out of social media retirement just to respond to him.\u201d— Branden (@Branden) 1671430961
\u201cThe year is 2022\nAnd MySpace Tom emerges from the shadows to reclaim his throne as the most trusted man in Social Media after his decade-long slumber.\u201d— Horse News (@Horse News) 1671444976
\u201cImagine if MySpace Tom became the CEO of Twitter? It would be my most trusted app\u201d— Kelly Keegs (@Kelly Keegs) 1671461184
\u201cHe has returned to save us.\u201d— Washington Post TikTok Guy \ud83c\udf84 (@Washington Post TikTok Guy \ud83c\udf84) 1671466340
\u201cimagine how much better twitter would be if it were a minuscule as cool as myspace\u201d— Jubilee \u2763\ufe0f 2023 CALENDARS OUT NOW (@Jubilee \u2763\ufe0f 2023 CALENDARS OUT NOW) 1671427243
Anderson set up the first pages of MySpace in 2003. He founded the site partly as a reaction to Friendster and its policy of blocking accounts that did not use real names. MySpace was sold to News Corp in 2005 for $580 million.
Anderson has largely retreated from the tech space since cashing in and maintains an active social media presence on Facebook and Instagram, through which he regularly shares his global travel adventures and passion for landscape photography.