X CEO Linda Yaccarino is stepping down after two years

Linda Yaccarino is stepping down as CEO of X after two years running the company, she announced today. She was appointed its CEO in the year after Elon Musk bought and renamed the company previously known as Twitter — so far, there is no word on who will replace her.

“When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company,” Yaccarino said. “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.”

Yaccarino’s departure comes just after xAI, which owns X, updated its Grok chatbot to be more “politically incorrect,” resulting in a flood of antisemitism and Hitler praise.

Yaccarino, a former ad executive at NBC Universal, was named Twitter’s CEO in May 2023. At the time, Musk said that Yaccarino would focus “primarily on business operations” while he focused on “product design” and “new technology.” Shortly after her appointment, she appeared onstage at Vox Media’s Code Conference in a wild interview where she looked frustrated and rattled.

During Yaccarino’s tenure, X has also had to contend with competition from alternative platforms like Meta’s Threads, which has more than 350 million monthly active users, and Bluesky, which is adding more features inspired by X.

“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk said in a reply to Yaccarino’s post.