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!”
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! https://t.co/BcvySu7K76
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayacc) May 13, 2023
“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!”
Many Twitter folks were not happy with this move, but like anything we all learn to adapt. What did people think that Musk would be running Twitter forever without any help? LOL
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.”
