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She had a good run, but two years after she stepped up to lead the latest chapter of Twitter, Linda Yaccarino is out. As part of Elon Musk's purchase and rebrand of Twitter, Yaccarino took the reins of X...although many of you still call it Twitter.
There have been rumblings of discontent over on X, especially as Elon Musk's much-promoted Grok AI chatbot has been accused of spouting offensive nonsense. This wouldn't be the first time Grok has gone rogue, especially after it seemed to become obsessed with white genocide.
In the midst of all this, Linda Yaccarino has announced her shock departure from X.
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Thanking the world's richest man for having faith in her, Yaccarino wrote: "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."
It comes after Musk acquired Twitter in October 2022 for a hefty $44 billion. His plan was to turn it into a 'public square' that's free of censorship. Since then, X has rolled back major features like blocking and faced a mass exodus of celebrity names, while the likes of Musk's ex, Grimes, has branded it 'a prison'.
Despite Yaccarino not listing a reason for her departure, conspiracy theorists are lining it up with convenient timing, coming just one day after Grok was accused of posting antisemitic sentiments. Grok even went as far as referring to itself as 'MechaHitler', which sparked concern among more than just the X community.
In her parting message, Yaccarino continued: "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."
It sounds like Yaccarino will still be sticking close to Musk, with reports she's moving over to xAI. The two companies are linked after X was sold to xAI for $33 billion.
As well as teasing the best is yet to come for X, Yaccarino also doesn't sound like she'll be leaving the platform behind, vowing to keep posting on X as she concluded: "I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. As always, I’ll see you on x."
Musk hasn't directly responded to news of Yaccarino stepping down, although he did comment on a post from French businessman Thierry Breton that read: "Need help, @elonmusk ? Europe’s got talent 🇪🇺."
The tech billionaire responded with a simple, "Sure 😂," although there's no news on who will replace Yaccarino. For all we know, it could be Grok itself taking the wheel.
