By Anjali Sharma
WASHINGTON – Social media platform X CEO Linda Yaccarino on Thursday has announced her decision to leave the company X, Elon Musk-owned.
She was on the job for past 2 years only.
Yaccarino expressed gratitude to Musk for giving her the responsibility of protecting free speech and “transforming X into the Everything App.”
She stated on social media post on X, “After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X.
“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. 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. I’m incredibly proud of the X team – the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable.”
“We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users–especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai,” she added.
She called X a “truly digital town square” for all voices and the world’s “most powerful culture signal” and stressed that they would not have been able to achieve that without the support of their users, business partners and the “most innovative team.”
Yaccarino wrote, “X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world. I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. As always, I’ll see you on X.”
She joined X, then known as Twitter, in 2023, about six months after Musk’s takeover of the social media platform. Prior to joining X, she served as the chair of NBCUniversal Media’s global advertising and partnerships, The Hill reported.
Yaccarino served as X’s CEO, several changes were brought to the platform, including its rebranding from Twitter to X, and numerous crises. Advertisers fled the site after Musk’s takeover of X, as he began introducing various content moderation policies and restoring previously banned accounts, including that of US President Donald Trump.
Her efforts to bring advertisers back to the platform were occasionally derailed by Musk, media reported.
In 2023, Musk slammed advertisers who decided to end their spending in the platform over a report that X was placing ads next to white nationalist content, telling them to “go f**k yourself,” media reported.
Her departure from X came as Musk wants to combine the social media company with his artificial intelligence (AI) firm xAI.
Elon Musk said that xAI had acquired X in a USD 45 billion deal.
