X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down after two years

Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as CEO of X, apparently effective immediately. She posted the news, naturally, on X, saying "I’m immensely grateful to [Elon Musk] for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App." She went on to say that "the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable." Reasonable minds can differ on if any of those things have happened.

A few hours after Yaccarino's announcement, Musk offered a terse "Thank you for your contributions" in a post on X.

Among the many changes that have come to X since Yaccarino took over are decreased moderation, a greater reliance on "community notes" that aren't properly doing what they're intended to do and, most recently, an AI bot that spouts antisemitic hatespeech.

She's also been really mad about a report from watchdog group Media Matters that caused a major advertiser pullback on X a few years ago. She claimed somehow that companies deciding not to run ads on a toxic platform amounted to a "free speech" issue. Later in the saga, X sued advertisers including Mars, Unilever and CVS Health for an "illegal boycott," another example of her staunch commitment to free speech. 

More recently, Media Matters sued the FTC, saying that the FTC was unfairly targeting it for its criticism of X; this comes after the FTC launched an investigation into Media Matters to determine if the group illegally colluded with advertisers. Naturally, this all happened while X owner Elon Musk was working closely with the federal government. The continual sniping and lawsuits to harm an organization for doing reporting she didn't like throws some cold water on her "free speech" claims.

If "free speech" equals "hate speech," though, you could argue that Yaccarino met one of her stated goals. Numerous studies showed that hate speech has flourished on the platform over the last two years, including this recent study from Berkeley that found a "persistent" spike despite the company's claims that hate speech had declined over time. 

AI is a big part of X's quest to become whatever the hell an "everything app" is, but another big part of it is X Money, which is supposedly launching in partnership with Visa later this year. But Grok (and AI more broadly) is probably the biggest current initiative at the company, one that has been mired in controversy almost from the start. In addition to this week's antisemitic rants, Grok has also talked up a supposed "white genocide" in South Africa and also misled potential voters in the lead-up to the 2024 US presidential election. 

Other "everything app" features like video broadcasts and paid video content have been a bust, as well — perhaps no more significantly than a livestream with Musk and then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. The livestream infrastructure completely failed, with Musk claiming a "massive DDOS" was to blame. Meanwhile, broadcaster Don Lemon sued X after his interview show on the platform was immediately canceled, seemingly because Musk didn't like the questions Lemon asked him in an interview. 

As for X's financial health and Yaccarino's claims of "turning the company around," it was impossible to miss reports that Musk's takeover cratered revenue and X's overall value. That said, some financial analysts believe that the company's advertising revenue will increase year-over-year for the first time since 2021 (an easier feat once you've spent a few years tanking it?). 

Whoever takes the position from Yaccarino clearly will have a tough act to follow, but there's no word on any potential successor yet.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-ceo-linda-yaccarino-is-stepping-down-after-two-years-145907096.html?src=rss https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-ceo-linda-yaccarino-is-stepping-down-after-two-years-145907096.html?src=rss