New Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino released her first statement on Saturday about taking over at the company while the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, prepares to shift his role to executive chairman and chief technology officer.
Yaccarino posted her statement in response to Musk’s tweet on Friday announcing her hiring.
“I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!” Musk tweeted. “@LindaYacc will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology. Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
Yaccarino responded: “Thank you @elonmusk ! I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!”
“I see I have some new followers👀…👋 I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform,” she continued. “Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it. Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!”
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I see I have some new followers👀…👋 I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform.
Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it.
Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) May 13, 2023
Yaccarino had been at NBCUniversal for more than a decade where her focus was on finding the best methods for measuring the effectiveness of advertising.
A review of her Twitter account shows that she frequently engages or “likes” a lot of content from Musk and some of Musk’s top allies.
Musk said shortly after taking over at Twitter that remaining as the company’s CEO permanently was not the best situation for him, noting at the time that he would have to start searching for someone who could handle the role.
Following her hiring, Twitter users started to uncover the connections that Yaccarino holds to entities such as the World Economic Forum, for which she chairs the Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the Media, Entertainment and Culture Industry Governors Steering Committee. The World Economic Forum is a leading proponent of stakeholder capitalism, an approach to investing that encourages executives to consider the needs of employees, communities, and other parties in addition to shareholders, and the use of corporate power to advance political agendas.
Yaccarino also served as board chair for the Ad Council, an entity which creates public service announcements for nonprofits and governments. She partnered with the Biden administration to launch a campaign featuring Pope Francis in order to promote COVID vaccines.
Musk insisted on Friday that Yaccarino would not institute the shadow bans which frequently targeted conservatives under the previous management of Twitter. The phrase “RIP Twitter” nevertheless trended on the platform after he officially announced her appointment to work as chief executive.
Users also unearthed an interview Yaccarino conducted with Musk last month in which she pressed him to amend his own spontaneous use of the platform and contended that advertisers “need to feel that there is an opportunity for them to influence” the site with respect to “content moderation.”
Yaccarino and Musk clashed as she asked Musk to reinstitute the “well populated, much loved influence council” that existed before he purchased the company last year. Musk countered that he would be “worried about creating a backlash among the public” should they believe that “their views are being determined” by a handful of elite marketing executives.
“It’s totally cool to say that you want to have your advertising appear in certain places on Twitter and not in other places, but it is not cool to try to say what Twitter will do,” he remarked. “And if that means losing advertising dollars, we lose it, but freedom of speech is paramount.”