Linda Yaccarino on Wednesday announced she is stepping down as CEO of Elon Musk’s social media site X after two years in the role.
Yaccarino’s departure comes one day after Musk’s artificial intelligence chatbot Grok repeatedly made antisemitic comments and referenced Hitler in response to posts about the Texas flooding.
Grok is built by Musk’s company xAI, which merged with X in March in an all-stock transaction that values the AI company at $80 billion and the social media company at $33 billion.
“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,” Yaccarino wrote in a post on X. “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.”
Yaccarino did not give a reason for her departure, but her exit had been in the works for more than a week, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News.
Musk responded to Yaccarino’s post on Wednesday and said: “Thank you for your contributions.”
Musk announced he hired Yaccarino as CEO of X in May 2023, months after he purchased the social blogging site Twitter for $44 billion. Throughout her two years as chief executive, Yaccarino acted as a staunch supporter of Musk and repeatedly defended him on social media.
Yaccarino previously worked at NBCUniversal and rose to the top of the company’s global advertising business. She was primarily tasked with overseeing “business operations” at X, which included trying to placate advertisers as the social platform underwent substantial changes to its safety and content moderation policies.
After Musk hurled insults, including “Go f— yourself,” at advertisers during the 2023 DealBook Summit, for instance, Yaccarino described Musk’s comments as an “explicit point of view about our position.”
“We’re a platform that allows people to make their own decisions,” Yaccarino wrote in a post on X at the time. “And here’s my perspective when it comes to advertising: X is standing at a unique and amazing intersection of Free Speech and Main Street — and the X community is powerful and is here to welcome you. To our partners who believe in our meaningful work — Thank You.”
Disclosure: NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
