Linda Yaccarino Steps Down As CEO Of X

Linda Yaccarino announced on Wednesday that she’s stepping down as CEO of X, offering little in the way of an explanation.

After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of ð•.

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. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me…

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025

Full note below (emphasis ours): 

After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of ð•. 

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. 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. 

I’m incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable. 

We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform. Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai
 . 

X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world. 

I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world. 

As always, I’ll see you on ð•

According to the NY Times, which had an article queued up to publish 3 minutes after her tweet – and authored by Musk-hater Mike Isaac;

Yaccarino’s exit caps a tumultuous period at X, which has been remade in Mr. Musk’s image since he bought the platform for $44 billion in 2022. Since then, Mr. Musk has shed three quarters of the company’s employees, loosened speech restrictions on the platform and wielded X as a political megaphone. Advertisers to X were at one point spooked by the changes and the social media company’s ad business declined.

In March, Mr. Musk said he had sold X, which is a privately held company, to xAI, his artificial intelligence start-up, in an unusual arrangement that showed the financial maneuvering inside his business empire. The all-stock deal valued xAI at $80 billion and X at $33 billion, Mr. Musk said. Since then, xAI has been in talks to raise new financing that could value it at as much as $120 billion.

The rest of the article essentially suggests Yaccarino’s job was partly to handle Musk, who has “frequently made her job more difficult, including using expletives to tell advertisers that he would not be changing his ways.”