X CEO Linda Yaccarino says she is stepping down after two years running Elon Musk’s social media platform.
Yaccarino posted a positive message on Wednesday about her tenure at the company formerly known as Twitter and said “the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with” Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, maker of the chatbot Grok.
Musk hired Yaccarino, a veteran ad executive, in May 2023 after buying Twitter for $US44 billion ($A67 billion) in late 2022.
He said at the time that Yaccarino’s role would be focused mainly on running the company’s business operations, leaving him to focus on product design and new technology.
In accepting the job, Yaccarino was taking on the challenge of getting big brands back to advertising on the social media platform after months of upheaval following Musk’s takeover.
A number of companies had pulled back on ad spending – the platform’s chief source of revenue – over concerns that Musk’s thinning of content restrictions was enabling hateful and toxic speech to flourish.
“When Elon Musk 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,” Yaccarino wrote.
“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.”
with DPA
Australian Associated Press is the beating heart of Australian news. AAP is Australia’s only independent national newswire and has been delivering accurate, reliable and fast news content to the media industry, government and corporate sector for 85 years. We keep Australia informed.
