The CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino has announced she is stepping down from the role after two years at the company.
In a post on Wednesday, the 61-year old former executive at NBCUniversal described her time working at Elon Musk’s social network, as “incredible”, saying: “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.”
“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.”
Replying to her post, Musk wrote, “Thank you for your contributions.”
Before joining Twitter in May 2023, Yaccarino was the Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships at NBCUniversal Media, where she managed distribution and commerce partnerships, client relationships and global business units.
She was hired by Musk roughly a year after he’d purchased Twitter for $44bn, later renaming it X.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! @LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology,” Musk tweeted upon announcing his replacement. “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
Yaccarino was tasked with boosting relations with corporate advertisers and spearheading the company’s “Twitter Blue” subscription service.
Over the past 24 months, she has had to neutralise public reaction to Musk’s contentious behaviour. In November 2023, just a few months after Yaccarino stepped into her new role, Musk gave a public appearance at a New York Times DealBook summit where he told advertisers to “go fuck yourself” and leave the platform, accusing them of pulling their money from X in an attempt to try to “blackmail” him.
The advertising boycott followed the billionaire’s endorsement of an antisemitic conspiracy theory, where he agreed with one social media user’s post that Jewish communities “have been pushing the exact kind of dialectical hatred against whites that they claim to want people to stop using against them”.
Yaccarino defended Musk’s conduct, expressing her commitment to his company: “When you’re this consequential, there will be detractors and fabricated distractions, but we’re unwavering in our mission,” her post said. “Thank you for standing with us!”
Days later, in a memo to employees, Yaccarino again defended Musk’s expletive-laced rant against departed advertisers, describing his remarks as both “candid” and “profound.”
In Yaccarino’s memo, she wrote that Musk “shared an unmatched and completely unvarnished perspective and vision for the future.” She also promised X would be a platform free of censorship.”
“Our principles do not have a price tag, nor will they be compromised — ever,” she wrote. “And no matter how hard they try, we will not be distracted by sideline critics who don’t understand our mission.”
The memo followed a previous letter she sent to X employees where she dismissed a report that revealed ads from big corporations running beside pro-Nazi content, calling them “misleading” and “manipulated.”
“[T]he data will tell the real story,” her letter read. “Because for all of us who work at X, we’ve been extremely clear about our efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination, as there’s no place for it anywhere in the world.”
Earlier this year, she denied that X had forced companies to advertise on the platform by threatening lawsuits against them.
According to WSJ advertising editor Suzanne Vranica, the company “sued a bunch of advertisers and a trade group claiming that they all colluded to illegally boycott the site, which violated antitrust laws.”
“They actually decided to go on an even more aggressive pressure campaign and decided to start strong arming some brands to return and basically used threats demanding that they return to the platform or they end up being sued,” she explained last month.
Right up until recently, the outgoing CEO was frequently forced to defend Musk and the controversies surrounding his online engagements, including his clash with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer over child grooming gangs in January and his interaction with the far-right Alternative for Germany political party, Alice Weidel a few days later.
Yaccarino defended Musk’s actions as courageous and visionary, arguing that X offered a critical space for crucial conversations and for creating awareness around the issue of child grooming gangs in the UK.
After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025
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…
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