Official Twitter Thread (1 Viewer)

[Ilov80s]

The CEO who never was: how Linda Yaccarino was set up to fail at Elon Musk’s X

In May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company’s relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference – which he called the worst post he’s ever done – but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Go **** yourselves”. Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference.“I don’t want them to advertise,” he said. “If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go **** yourself. Go. ****. Yourself,” he said. “Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel.” In the two years since, Yaccarino has had to contend with the unpredictability of Musk, ongoing content moderation and hate speech issues on the platform, increasingly strained relationships with advertisers and widespread backlash her boss received for his role in Donald Trump’s administration. Her response in some cases was to remain silent; in others, she chose to defend the company. Through it all, however, experts say it was clear Yaccarino was the chief executive in title only.
“The reality is that Elon Musk is and always has been at the helm of X,” said Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester VP. “It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company’s chief executive. Her background and actual authority positioned her more as the company’s chief advertising officer, rather than its CEO.” Even in her de facto role as a chief advertising officer, Musk’s incessant posting, impulsive decision making and obsession with X and other platforms becoming too “woke” posed huge obstacles for Yaccarino. “The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner,” said Proulx.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/x-ceo-steps-down-linda-yaccarino

Yeah. Whatever your opinion on her, Musk, X, etc....she definitely had an unenviable job.

There are lots of people with unenviable jobs in this country. Linda Yaccarino leaving her $4M gig at CBS to make $6M-$8M a year for Musk…..gets ZERO empathy from me. She knew what she was getting into, and she was extremely well compensated for the bullets she willingly took for a very sick man.

Yes. Unenviable in what she had to do but quite enviable in terms of compensation.

 

[thecatch]

The CEO who never was: how Linda Yaccarino was set up to fail at Elon Musk’s X

In May 2023, when Linda Yaccarino, an NBC advertising executive, joined what was then still known as Twitter, she was given a tall order: repair the company’s relationship with advertisers after a chaotic year of being owned by Elon Musk. But just weeks after she became CEO, Musk posted an antisemitic tweet that drove away major brands like Disney, Paramount, NBCUniversal, Comcast, Lionsgate and Warner Bros Discovery to pause their advertising on the platform. Musk delivered an apology for the tweet later at a conference – which he called the worst post he’s ever done – but it came with a message to advertisers, specifically the Disney CEO Bob Iger: “Go **** yourselves”. Yaccarino was in the audience of the conference.“I don’t want them to advertise,” he said. “If someone is going to blackmail me with advertising or money, go **** yourself. Go. ****. Yourself,” he said. “Is that clear? Hey Bob, if you’re in the audience, that’s how I feel.” In the two years since, Yaccarino has had to contend with the unpredictability of Musk, ongoing content moderation and hate speech issues on the platform, increasingly strained relationships with advertisers and widespread backlash her boss received for his role in Donald Trump’s administration. Her response in some cases was to remain silent; in others, she chose to defend the company. Through it all, however, experts say it was clear Yaccarino was the chief executive in title only.
“The reality is that Elon Musk is and always has been at the helm of X,” said Mike Proulx, research director at Forrester VP. “It was clear from the start that she was being set up to fail by a limited scope as the company’s chief executive. Her background and actual authority positioned her more as the company’s chief advertising officer, rather than its CEO.” Even in her de facto role as a chief advertising officer, Musk’s incessant posting, impulsive decision making and obsession with X and other platforms becoming too “woke” posed huge obstacles for Yaccarino. “The only thing that’s surprising about Linda Yaccarino’s resignation is that it didn’t come sooner,” said Proulx.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/09/x-ceo-steps-down-linda-yaccarino

Yeah. Whatever your opinion on her, Musk, X, etc....she definitely had an unenviable job.

There are lots of people with unenviable jobs in this country. Linda Yaccarino leaving her $4M gig at CBS to make $6M-$8M a year for Musk…..gets ZERO empathy from me. She knew what she was getting into, and she was extremely well compensated for the bullets she willingly took for a very sick man.

He didn’t say she was underpaid, just that she had a crappy job.

 

[Ilov80s]

To be clear, this is WAY worse than anything the "Twitter Files" ever uncovered. Remember back then, when the scandal was that twitter moderation teams were debating whether some tweets violated their terms of service? We saw their discussions! Although at times they erred, there was no evidence of bias directly from those threads. Yet critics were outraged.

Now, the extremely political CEO has turned Twitter extremely partisan, and has programmed the AI product to weight his overtly partisan views when providing results.

1000X worse than anything alleged prior to Musk buying Twitter. It's mind boggling insane how Elon's literally doing the thing he complained about x1000, and yet we're supposed to ignore the elephant in the room.

I 100% standby my original opinion that he bought Twitter for 100% political reasons. He knew he would take a bath on it financially but also knew he could afford it.

 

[Joe Bryant]

To be clear, this is WAY worse than anything the "Twitter Files" ever uncovered. Remember back then, when the scandal was that twitter moderation teams were debating whether some tweets violated their terms of service? We saw their discussions! Although at times they erred, there was no evidence of bias directly from those threads. Yet critics were outraged.

Now, the extremely political CEO has turned Twitter extremely partisan, and has programmed the AI product to weight his overtly partisan views when providing results.

1000X worse than anything alleged prior to Musk buying Twitter. It's mind boggling insane how Elon's literally doing the thing he complained about x1000, and yet we're supposed to ignore the elephant in the room.

I 100% standby my original opinion that he bought Twitter for 100% political reasons. He knew he would take a bath on it financially but also knew he could afford it.

I think you're right. He's talked a good bit about why he bought it and much of it's political.

And a good reason why it doesn't belong here.