Linda Yaccarino announced Wednesday she was stepping down as CEO of X in a tweet that showed no sign of bad feelings toward X owner Elon Musk. But the timing is certainly interesting after Musk’s AI chatbot Grok promoted genocidal Nazi ideas on Tuesday, praising Adolf Hitler and suggesting a second Holocaust against Jews was needed.
“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” Yaccarino wrote in a tweet Wednesday morning that immediately got flooded with questions about Grok.
“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. 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 continued.
Yaccarino went on to claim that X had done work to protect children during her tenure, a particularly laughable claim after an incident where a prominent right-wing influencer posted child sexual abuse material, had his account banned, and then was personally reinstated by Musk.
Yaccarino was previously the head of advertising at NBCUniversal and was brought on in May of 2023 to help Twitter (it was still called Twitter back then) lure back advertisers that Musk had alienated with some drastic decisions. When Twitter exec Nick Pickles testified about the incident to an Australian Parliament hearing, he defended Musk’s actions and said the influencer may have just been trying to raise “awareness” about child abuse.
“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. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai,” Yaccarino wrote. Community Notes predates Musk’s ownership of the platform, though he did rename it from Birdwatch.
Predictably, Yaccarino wasn’t able to stop Musk from alienating advertisers. The billionaire welcomed back extremists like Nick Fuentes, Kanye West, and Alex Jones—all people who had been banned previously from the platform. And at one point Musk even said “go fuck yourself” to advertisers who were worried about their brands appearing near extremist content in Nov. 2023.
But there are some questions about whether Yaccarino really wanted to make X a less extreme environment in the first place. She seemed to defend Musk at every step of the way and insisted it was all about free speech, something she echoed in her send-off on Wednesday, writing about free speech and the “digital town square.”
“X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world,” Yaccarino wrote.
It’s notable that Musk didn’t shower Yaccarino with praise, instead writing simply, “Thank you for your contributions.” An endorsement for the ages.
CNBC reported that “her exit had been in the works for over a week,” according to “a source familiar,” but we obviously need to take that with a grain of salt.
Yaccarino didn’t step down when Musk gave two Nazi-style salutes, but it’s entirely possible that she was able to rationalize that moment at Trump’s inauguration just like the Anti-Defamation League did when they called it an “awkward gesture.” Grok’s transition into a full-blown Nazi on Tuesday after Musk promised to “fix” the AI chatbot was likely a bridge too far.