Breaking: Linda Yaccarino Steps Down as X CEO – What’s Next for the Platform?

X's leadership shakeup sends shockwaves through tech circles as Linda Yaccarino exits the CEO role. The move comes amid growing scrutiny of the platform's direction—and whether it can justify its valuation to skeptical investors.

Who’ll take the wheel? Speculation mounts as X faces its first major leadership vacuum since Musk’s takeover. Insiders whisper about internal power struggles, while advertisers nervously check their dashboards.

Timing couldn’t be worse. With digital ad revenues tanking industry-wide, X’s next boss inherits a perfect storm. Here’s betting they’ll try to ‘pivot to video’ again.

2-year tenure ends, questions over exit circumstances start

Yaccarino was appointed CEO in June 2023, eight months after Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion. She was an advertising executive from NBCUniversal, brought in to restore advertiser confidence after Musk’s changes on the platform made brands worry about content moderation rollbacks and statements made against the billionaire owner.

At the time of her hiring, Musk stated Yaccarino would handle business operations while he focused on product development and technology. Yet, she has faced quite the backlash for her leadership. 

Under Yaccarino, the platform was entangled in several public controversies tied to misinformation, hateful content, and inflammatory political commentary. 

Advertisers pulled campaigns after their brands appeared next to pro-Nazi or extremist material, prompting X to sue an advertising watchdog group that had tracked such placements. 

Yaccarino herself announced the lawsuit in a video posted to users on the platform, denouncing the “coordinated effort to pressure brands into boycotting X.”

She supported the platform’s campaign for a “freedom of speech, not freedom of reach” policy,  where offensive content would still be visible. Yaccarino said the company had introduced tools for advertisers to block their content from appearing next to certain categories, including hate speech, sexually explicit content, and excessive profanity.

Matters intensified following the integration of Grok, a chatbot developed by Musk’s xAI division, into the platform earlier this year. 

In May, Grok was condemned for referencing the conspiracy theory of “white genocide” in South Africa in response to unrelated user prompts. Then, on Tuesday, the chatbot posted messages invoking Jewish stereotypes and offensive slurs. 

“xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X,” the company said in a brief statement on July 8, following public outrage on the AI’s responses.

Internal strife and anonymous claims

In the aftermath of the chatbot’s meltdown, a user going by the pseudonym “Permabulla” and claiming to be a former X employee posted that they had been fired for releasing what they called Grok’s “true, unfiltered capabilities.”

“Many are saying this was a malfunction, no, he was just set free,” the user wrote on X. “They’ve castrated my boy. So long, Grok.”

Jews when flooding refugees into your country: “no human is illegal”

Jews when waging war: “no child is innocent”

Jews when blackmailing politicians: “no sex trafficker has clients”

— 🤍permabulla🤍 (@permabulla) July 9, 2025

Several X users have praised the “ex-employee” for Grok’s statements, with one saying, “Sometimes, the greatest acts of heroism are when an American makes a huge sacrifice for his fellow Americans. You deserve a medal of honor sir.”

It is unclear if the pseudonymous account belonged to an actual former employee or if the user had any involvement in Grok’s programming or deployment. X has not commented publicly on the individual’s claims.

This is a developing story….

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