X $TWTR CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her resignation as head of the social media platform on Wednesday.
Yaccarino has been CEO of X, Elon Musk’s social media platform, since 2023. In her post on X announcing her resignation, Yaccarino did not give a reason as to why she is stepping down. However, since Yaccarino took over as CEO, Musk hasn’t made her job easy, especially with advertisers. In 2023, Musk introduced daily "view limits" which undermined Yaccarino's role to attract advertisers to the platform. Plus last year, Musk sued a major group of advertisers, claiming it had violated antitrust laws by coordinating a boycott against spending money in the social media platform.
“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 her post. “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.”
When Musk announced Yaccarino as the CEO of the social media platform, formerly known as Twitter, he said Yaccarino’s focus would be primarily on business operations, while he would prioritize product design and new technology.
Yaccarino’s announcement comes right as Musk’s AI chatbot Grok — which is made by Musk's xAI — is under fire for reports of antisemitic posts on the app and insulting Polish politicians. xAI bought X in March, Reuters reported.
In her resignation post, Yaccarino said “the best is yet to come” to the social media platform as it “enters a new chapter” with xAI.
“We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users — especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence,” Yaccarino added in her post. “This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform.”
Yaccarino called the work the X team completed together “nothing short of remarkable.”
Before taking on her role as CEO of X, Yaccarino was chairman of global advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal.
Yaccarino is a veteran of the advertising industry, having served as Turner’s executive vice president of advertising sales, marketing, and acquisitions before joining NBC. In her profile on NBC’s website, which was taken offline after the announcement of her departure, Yaccarino was credited with developing NBC’s ad-supported streaming platforms and generating more than $100 billion in advertising sales.
Her bio on the social media platform previously read that she is “inspired by provocative leadership.”
Diego Lasarte and William Gavin contributed to this article.