Elon Musk Names New Twitter CEO And It's Already Sparking Controversy
Elon Musk's time as the CEO and owner of Twitter has been contentious to say the least, having rearranged large numbers of staff, changed how the site operates in fundamental ways, and made just about every news-weary online user think twice about logging on. Despite Elon having direct control over many aspects of the site, from the beginning, he has hinted that he won't always be in charge. That has been confirmed today as Musk just announced that he has chosen a new CEO of the beleaguered social media site, Linda Yaccarino.
I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter!@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. https://t.co/TiSJtTWuky
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 12, 2023
Linda Yaccarino was formerly the ad executive for NBCUniversal, and according to CNBC, resigned that position today in wake of the announcement. Yesterday, a tweet from Elon stated that the new CEO will be starting in around six weeks. Linda Yaccarino is not as public a figure as Musk, and as such, it remains to be seen how her leadership will transform the site (for better or worse).
Twitter's future
Elon also tweeted that he will remain at Twitter, switching his role to Chief Technology Officer (CTO), and thus having a hand in whatever products Twitter launches next. Linda Yaccarino will now be the person in charge, though a certain subset of Blue-Checkmarked Twitter users — and conspiracy theorists — have already taken issue with Linda Yaccarino's new position, noting that she is a board member of the controversy-plagued World Economic Forum (WEF).
The future is still uncertain as to what the site will look like under Linda Yaccarino's tutelage, and it's still a developing story with a lot of moving parts. It's also yet to be seen how Musk will handle his new role as the CTO, and if he really can extricate himself from the day to day running of the site. After all, diverting some of the internet's collective ire — that he bore the full brunt of, when he took over the site in October of last year — has to be an appealing prospect.