Two years after Musk’s ownership of X-Twitter, Linda Yaccarino has finally left her CEO post. The former NBCUniversal marketing executive announced her leaving just one day after controversy hit Grok-X’s AI chatbot, prompting antisemitic replies. Whether or not there may have been any relation, Linda Yaccarino’s exit ends quite a stormy episode for the social site.
Why Linda Yaccarino’s Position Became Increasingly Difficult
Linda Yaccarino would have faced numerous challenges as the CEO of X. The biggest hurdle for her was rebuilding relationships with advertisers who had taken flight from the platform following Musk’s offensive remarks. In November 2023, Musk had publicly told the departing advertisers to “go f**k yourself,” which, until now, had left a stain that Linda Yaccarino tried to wash away.
With the merging of X with Musk’s AI company xAI, the role of Linda Yaccarino became even more complicated. As the two companies merged, questions arose about her authority and what direction the platform would take moving forward. An anonymous X employee shared that there was “a lack of clarity, internally and externally, of what X is supposed to be.“
Linda Yaccarino also had to manage multiple public relations crises, including:
- Antisemitic and hateful content is spreading on the platform
- False claims about international conflicts
- Ads appearing alongside pro-Nazi content
- The controversial Grok chatbot sharing problematic responses
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Why the Timing of Linda Yaccarino’s Departure Matters
Here are a few reasons why the timing of Linda Yaccarino’s exit is important. It is on account of all the high-profile exits that have been occurring in Musk’s companies in recent months, including key Tesla executives. Hence, added complications have been introduced for his businesses, with Musk’s latest involvement in politics and his quarrel with President Donald Trump.
The departure of Yaccarino comes at a time when platform usage is down. Similarweb accounted for X having a combined usage of active users and website visitors of 915.9 million when Yaccarino assumed office, to 684.2 million in the last month.
Industry experts said they weren’t surprised by the exit. Jasmine Enberg of Emarketer said, “In many ways, it was always going to be a tough job being CEO of X; Linda Yaccarino lasted longer than many expected.” The really hard part was working for Musk, who “never fully stepped away from the helm.”
Why Linda Yaccarino’s Legacy at X Remains Complex
Linda Yaccarino was responsible for attempting a number of platform improvements during her CEO tenure. Brand safety controls were set up for advertisers, and the platform was promoted under the maxim: “Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.” Linda Yaccarino also supervised other new features: video podcasts with celebrities and financial tools through Visa.
These were not enough to make her X into the “everything app” Linda Yaccarino dreamed of. The platform continued to be carved up by competitors Bluesky and Meta’s Threads, while being dragged through the mud in advertiser relations and content moderation.
In a farewell message, she thanked Musk for “I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App..” She ended with “Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai.” “Going in, I don’t think anyone believed Linda Yaccarino would make it this long,” summed up crisis management specialist Anne Marie Malecha. “I also don’t think … that anyone anticipated that Musk would enter the political zeitgeist in the way that he has.“
