Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation as CEO of X on Wednesday.
“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” Yaccarino shared in a post on the social media platform. Yaccarino took over in June 2023, just months after Elon Musk assumed ownership of the platform previously known as Twitter.
Yaccarino expressed gratitude to Musk and gushed about the “groundbreaking innovations” the company implemented under her tenure. She thanked Musk “for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”
Musk returned Yaccarino’s appreciation with a brief response.
“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk wrote.
Yaccarino also praised xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company, which created and hosts X’s integrated chatbot, Grok. Musk sold X to xAI in March. The chatbot sparked outrage on Tuesday after it made antisemitic comments, praised Adolf Hitler and referred to itself as “MechaHitler.”
Start your day with essential news from Salon.
Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
“We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” the company wrote in a post.
Under Yaccarino, X filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against several advertisers in 2024, accusing them of boycotting the social media platform, and thus causing a loss in revenue. The defendants included the World Federation of Advertisers, Unilever, Mars and CVS Health. At the time, Yaccarino addressed the lawsuit in a post, writing, “People are hurt when the marketplace of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not funded over others as part of an illegal boycott.”
The former NBCUniversal executive also carried X through the rise of new competitors, Bluesky and Meta’s Threads.
Yaccarino didn’t provide a reason for her resignation and Musk hasn’t named a successor.
Read more
about X
