Elon Musk has lived up to his word to appoint a new Twitter CEO, with the social network owner confirming ad executive Linda Yaccarino will take over as chief exec.
Yaccarino is the outgoing head of advertising at NBCU Universal and will start the new job in around six weeks, according to Musk.
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The new CEO will be handling business operations at Twitter and will be charged with turning around the fortunes of the social network that has struggled to turn a profit even since an incredible number of layoffs following Musk’s purchase of the platform.
In a tweet announcing his selection, Musk wrote: “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.”
Musk, in teasing the announcement yesterday, revealed he would remain active in the role as executive chairman and will be the platform’s chief technology officer “overseeing products, software and sysops.”
So, if you were anticipating that Musk stepping down as CEO would bring an end to the chaos that has surrounded the platform since he purchased the company, that might not be the case.
While Yaccarino will be in charge of the business side of things, Musk will still be handling everything that’s made Twitter such a tumultuous place to exist in the last few months.
As CTO overseeing the apps, we’re still likely to see plenty of spur of the moment changes pertaining to the way the platform behaves, the relationships with third-party sites, the vaunted blue tick, strange breakages, and the regular security and privacy scares that have dominated his reign thus far.
It’s also highly likely, with Musk as majority owner and executive chairman of the Twitter board, that Yaccarino will report directly to him. That’s not the usual order of things. Usually at major tech companies the CTO reports to the CEO.
Musk is stepping down as ‘Chief Twit’ after asking Twitter users whether he should, in a poll late last year. Considering Musk has spent much of his time in charge of Twitter extolling the virtues of the platform as a place for free speech and a tool for enhancing democracy, it was good to see him act in the interest of those values.
Of course, this week Twitter struck a deal with former Fox News shock jock and conservative firebrand Tucker Carlson to bring his show to Twitter in the near future. Carlson was instrumental in spreading baseless conspiracy theories about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the United States.
Perhaps the dumpster fire is just getting started?
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
