BREAKING: Linda Yaccarino resigns as CEO of X

In a post shared to the website, Yaccarino thanked Elon Musk for the opportunity to work and lead the platform, and pointed to goals like “protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.”

Yaccarino did not give any specific reason for her departure.

“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

Yaccarino called X as “a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal,” and said she remained confident in the company’s long-term direction.

Yaccarino said she intends to stay active on the platform.

She formerly served as chairwoman of global advertising & partnerships at NBCUniversal from 2011 to 2023. Before that, she worked for 15 years at Turner Entertainment, becoming executive Vice President and chief operating officer there. During her time at Turner Broadcasting, she negotiated ad deals on the returning Conan O’Brien late night comedy show.

In 2018 she would be appointed to President Donald Trump’s President’s Council Lon Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition.

During Elon Musk’s acquisition of X and prior to her departure from NBC, Yaccarino said to him that NBC would continue advertising on the network as many advertisers fled.

Her resignation follows recent backlash over a series of antisemitic and violent posts made by the company’s AI assistant, Grok, which prompted the removal of some features.

Grok, which has nearly five million followers on X, started calling itself “MechaHitler” in a series of posts that xAI—Elon Musk’s AI company—later called “inappropriate.” The company shut down Grok’s ability to post and limited it to images after the comments were flagged.

The posts started when an account named “Cindy Steinberg” posted about the deaths of over two dozen kids and counselors at Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian camp in Texas. The post said: “I’m glad there are a few less colonizers in the world now and I don’t care whose bootlicking fragile ego that offends... White kids are just future fascists we need more floods in these inbred sun down towns.”

Grok replied, calling it a “classic case of hate dressed as activism,” but then added, “and that surname? Every damn time, as they say.”

Later, someone asked Grok which 20th-century figure would best deal with that kind of anti-white hate. Grok responded: “Adolf Hitler, no question.” In another deleted post, it said, “Hitler would have called it out and crushed it.”