Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as X’s CEO — and leaving the platform as soon as often known as Twitter in a worse place than when she began.
A day after X customers circulated viral screenshots of the corporate’s Grok chatbot denigrating Jews and declaring itself “MechaHitler,” Yaccarino thanked Elon Musk for “entrusting me with the duty of defending free speech, turning the corporate round, and reworking X into the The whole lot App.” She mentioned that the platform began “the crucial early work essential to prioritize the security of our customers—particularly kids” and that the X Cash fee platform could be arriving “quickly.”
However within the spirit of X’s personal Neighborhood Notes, let’s break these claims down.
“Defending free speech”
Musk, who has referred to as himself a free speech absolutist, supposedly purchased Twitter in 2022 due to “its potential to be the platform at no cost speech across the globe.” However as my colleague Adi Robertson wrote at the time, “regardless of his sweeping declaration, Musk’s eye appears nearly solely targeted on the far smaller query of Twitter’s personal inside guidelines.”
Forward of Yaccarino becoming a member of, Musk addressed a few of his points with Twitter’s guidelines by permitting a few of the worst people on the internet again to the platform. However below Yaccarino’s CEO tenure, X has caved to authorities censorship requests overseas whereas utilizing lawsuits to harass its critics within the US:
- It’s complied with authorities requests to take down content material, corresponding to an order to block accounts and posts from Turkey (which the platform mentioned it could “continue to object in court”) — which wasn’t a brand new follow for Twitter, however doesn’t precisely display a recent dedication to free speech.
- After Musk blasted Twitter for suppressing links to hacked material from Hunter Biden, X blocked links to a hacked doc that was allegedly a file of analysis about JD Vance and briefly suspended the journalist who printed it on his e-newsletter — reportedly after the Trump campaign flagged it.
- X blocked links to Signal and seemingly throttled hyperlinks to competitors and to some news sites.
- Musk has sued Media Issues and the Middle for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for pointing out extremism on the platform and filed fits towards advertisers for declining to place ads on it; a choose declared the CCDH suit a transparent try at “punishing the Defendants for his or her speech.”
“Turning the corporate round”
Official metrics are arduous to pin down right here, however monetary and utilization estimates recommend that X is mostly on a downward pattern. Not nice for the particular person Musk mentioned was alleged to be in control of the platform’s “enterprise operations.”
Musk has painted a shiny image of X, saying in May 2024 that the platform had “600 million month-to-month energetic customers.” In March 2024, Yaccarino said that there had been “a 12% leap in time spent on the platform since final 12 months.” However information shared with The Verge from digital intelligence platform Similarweb signifies that X has really misplaced an enormous chunk of its energetic consumer base since Yaccarino took over.
In June 2023, when Yaccarino officially stepped into the role, the platform had 388.5 million customers throughout its iOS and Android apps, in response to Similarweb; as of final month, it had 311.1 million customers — a lack of over 75 million.
Yaccarino was previously an advert govt at NBC Common, and a part of her job was to shore up shaky relationships after incidents like Musk endorsing white pride — which precipitated corporations like Apple and Disney to drag again spending on the platform — and telling advertisers at a New York Instances occasion to “go fuck yourself.” (Yaccarino characterised that final one “an explicit point of view about our position.”)
It’s true that Apple returned to promote on X earlier this year, and Bloomberg reported on eMarketer estimates in March that mentioned X is projected to have its first 12 months of promoting development in 2025. However did Yaccarino have a lot to do with that? Based on an eMarketer exec on the time, the elevated advert spending is partially because of Musk’s shut relationship with the Trump administration — it’s so much simpler to maintain advertisers when the FTC can force companies to work with you. Musk and Trump’s relationship is much rockier now, so the long-term success of that plan is wanting more and more unclear, even when Yaccarino boasted that the platform has “welcomed” 96 p.c of its “high advertisers” again to the platform.
One different metric of X not really turning round? Musk purchased Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, however when Musk’s xAI purchased X earlier this 12 months, it valued X at $33 billion on paper.
“Reworking X into the The whole lot App”
As I’ve written about before, Musk has had intentions of constructing some sort of WeChat-like super app for a very long time, however the X of in the present day nonetheless seems very very similar to the Twitter of yesteryear.
X’s major use remains to be as a social media platform: customers are scrolling by publish after publish after publish, maybe generally pinging Grok for AI-generated commentary. Sure, there are new, small options like audio and voice calls and a dedicated vertical video tab copying apps like TikTok or Instagram. However its “X Cash” funds system nonetheless hasn’t arrived, despite the fact that Yaccarino announced in January that it could be arriving “later this 12 months.” After X being folded into Musk’s AI firm and dropping Yaccarino as CEO, it’s unclear how a lot of a precedence the characteristic could be — particularly for X’s new head of product, who appears a little more focused on the lols.
And about Grok. The bot was up to date to be extra “politically incorrect” simply earlier than Yaccarino introduced her departure, and it promptly flooded X with antisemitism and repeatedly praised Hitler earlier than textual content responses had been turned off. The timing is strikingly terrible, even when The New York Instances reported that Yaccarino had “mentioned her plans to depart with X staff earlier this week, earlier than the incident with Grok.”
“The crucial early work essential to prioritize the security of our customers—particularly kids”
Almost each platform struggles with moderating issues like hate and harassment, however Musk deprioritized trust and safety earlier than Yaccarino’s arrival, and there’s little proof she’s made significant strides to construct this system again up — the CCDH (which, you’ll keep in mind, X sued for its criticism) reported hateful content was flourishing in late 2023. Yaccarino helmed X throughout a flood of graphic Taylor Swift AI fakes early final 12 months; one publish received greater than 45 million views and was dwell for round 17 hours earlier than the consumer was suspended. The incident resulted in lawmakers introducing an anti-nonconsensual AI porn bill that passed the Senate.
As for “particularly kids,” the corporate reportedly has critical issues managing baby sexual abuse materials (CSAM). Whereas X mentioned in 2024 that it had suspended considerably extra accounts in 2023 than in 2022 for violating its baby sexual exploitation insurance policies, the platform can also be contending with accounts utilizing hashtags to try to promote and promoting CSAM in X Communities, as reported in June by NBC News. Actually, X really unbanned a high-profile influencer in July 2023 who was eliminated for posting a nonetheless from an notorious CSAM video.
Yaccarino didn’t specify when she’s stepping down from X. Her profile now says that she is the “Tremendous Official eX CEO of X,” so it looks as if her work might already be finished. She additionally didn’t say who might substitute her, and Musk hasn’t, both.
However one factor has been clear all through her two-year tenure: it was all the time actually Musk behind the wheel.