“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” is CEO Linda Yaccarino’s announcement on the Elon Musk-owned platform. She gave no further explanation regarding her resignation, while in the post she thanked the Silicon Valley financier for the experience that began in May 2023 and for the team that has accompanied her. The news comes after the chatbot Grok, developed by the startup xAI, which includes X, praised Adolf Hitler during a “conversation” with a user.
“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,” she writes in the 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. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with xAI. X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal.”
Yaccarino, 61, a “mother, foodie, fashion enthusiast, UPenn alumn,” as she describes herself on X, has faced one of the most challenging times in the platform’s history. When she was appointed CEO, the app was still called Twitter, users who had been banned had just been readmitted, and free speech policies had been reinstated.
The platform was also shedding users. Yaccarino has had to establish a strategy to reverse that trend, limit offensive content, prevent the spread of fake news, and, above all, contain the owner’s often irreverent and divisive comments. In the past year, the emergence of two new competitors, Bluesky and Threads by Meta, has not made life easy. Only Musk’s rapprochement with President Trump and his rise in government helped lift the platform.
It is unclear how much Yaccarino was or was not involved in Grok’s activity on the platform.
“As always, I’ll see you on X,” she concluded.
