This week, Elon Musk announced that Linda Yaccarino will replace Elon Musk as Twitter’s CEO. Yaccarino was a longtime advertising executive at NBCUniversal.
Musk tweeted, “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. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1657050349608501249?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1657050349608501249%7Ctwgr%5E544ea66296a5deb3e235b50c10db39bcd459e1b6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxbusiness.com%2Ftechnology%2Flinda-yaccarino-nbcuniversal-musk-elon-musk-twitter-ceo
Elon made a prior announcement that he would soon name the new CEO, stating, “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks! My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”
However, many are disappointed with the announcement, given Yaccarino’s tenure at left-leaning NBC. One of the main reasons Elon Musk purchased Twitter was to create a true free speech environment that wasn’t subject to censorship. For years, conservatives have felt that social media giants have unfairly censored right-wing accounts compared to their leftist counterparts.
After Musk took over Twitter, many previously banned accounts, including former president Donald Trump, were allowed back onto Twitter. Furthermore, Elon pledged to evenly enforce Twitter’s terms of service and allow as much freedom of speech as possible. However, some fear Musk’s initiatives could be reversed with the new CEO hire.
Billboard Chris replied to Elon in the comments:
During her interview with you, she was most excited about your initiative to limit reach of tweets which are deemed hateful. “Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.”In fact, that was her main selling point to the advertising exes in the audience, as she kept coming back to it. She went on to chastise you twice for tweeting after 3am, because people are concerned about that sort of behaviour. What?She also wanted advertising execs to be part of an influence council within Twitter. She‘a not here to improve the user experience. She wants Twitter to be a ‘safe space.’ She represents advertisers, and her natural inclination is to limit speech, and pander to those who push woke ideology on the world. You will have to watch her like a hawk.She was also thrilled to spend $100,000,000 on social justice initiatives while at NBC, and forwarded government authoritarian propaganda that the way back to a normal life was to “wear your mask!” No doubt she’ll bring in advertising revenue in the short term, but she’s a long-term mistake.
Elon responded, “I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.”
Diligent Denizen commented on Elon’s post, “Twitter is so important not because of the numbers of people on the platform, but because of the INFLUENCE of the people on the platform… they have known this, which is why it was infiltrated by the government and the woke… This is a HUGE misstep…”
However, another added, “So, here’s the deal. Twitter needs major advertisers to be profitable. These advertisers need to be from big brands. She has the experience and relationships to help bring them on board. We will all watch to see if there is an uptick in censorship. I am watchful waiting.”
Time will tell if Twitter will retain the initiatives Elon has enacted since his takeover late last year.