Conservatives Worried Over New Twitter CEO

Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, who succeeded the platform’s owner Elon Musk on May 12, already has conservative users up in arms.

In comments posted on the platform over the past week, conservatives who’ve flocked to the site under Musk’s watch are portraying Yaccarino’s ascension to the top spot as a return to so-called shadow banning — and as a rebuke of conservative views Musk has defended, The Street is reporting.

Musk was over the moon about his selection in his tweet about naming Yaccarino as CEO.

“@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.”

Conservatives were not convinced.

“During her interview with you, she was most excited about your initiative to limit reach of tweets which are deemed hateful. ‘Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach,’ ” groused a user about Yaccarino’s interview of Musk last month during an advertising conference in Miami.

“She represents advertisers, and her natural inclination is to limit speech, and pander to those who push woke ideology on the world. You will have to watch her like a hawk,” the user continued, summarizing most of the criticism against Yaccarino.

“She was also thrilled to spend $100,000,000 on social justice initiatives while at NBC, and forwarded government authoritarian propaganda that the way back to a normal life was to ‘wear your mask!’ No doubt she’ll bring in advertising revenue in the short term, but she’s a long-term mistake.”

Another poster referred to Yaccarino’s position as chairman, global advertising & partnerships at NBCUniversal prior to joining Twitter, and that she promoted masks and vaccines to fight COVID-19 — a sticking point with conservatives.

“I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early,” Musk urged. “I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.”

Other conservative critics focused on Yaccarino’s work with the World Economic Forum, an organization Musk in January accused of wanting to rule the world without people’s approval, The Street reported at the time.

“I hope I hope I hope I’m wrong, I WANT to be wrong,” wrote one skeptical user,

According to The Street. “She’s not some onetime visitor of Davos. She’s a junior leader within the org & chair of committees, which doesnt happen just because you’re a nice person. You have to be connected to these reptiles heavily to get that.”

According to Yaccarino’s LinkedIn profile, she is “the Chairman of the WEF’s Taskforce on Future of Work and sits on the WEF’s media, entertainment and culture industry Governors Steering committee.”

A day after her appointment, Yaccarino spoke out, posting two messages, saying she was “excited” and ready to “transform” the platform.

“Thank you @elonmusk!” the new Chief Executive Officer posted May 13. “I’ve long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I’m excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!”

She then added: “I see I have some new followers👀…👋 I’m not as prolific as @elonmusk (yet!), but I’m just as committed to the future of this platform. Your feedback is VITAL to that future. I’m here for all of it. Let’s keep the conversation going and build Twitter 2.0 together!”

But conservatives pushed back.

“Your involvement with the WEF and Ad Council, both which promote state-sponsored propaganda, censorship, and totalitarianism under the guise of ‘public/private partnerships, is the elephant in the room and needs to be addressed,” one user commented, adding:

“You likely have seen your own highlight reels full of corporate wokeness – I would address those as well. Elon [Musk] is committed to free speech – we need this commitment from you also. We wish you luck in the new role. Don’t let us down.”

Musk has said they’ll both take part in a live conversation on Twitter.

“As soon as @LindaYacc is ready, we will do a Spaces where you can ask us anything,” the billionaire tweeted May 12.

It’s not just a distrustful conservative block the new CEO faces; she’ll also have the heavy-lift job of helping Twitter regain its credibility with advertisers, The Street reported, noting an exodus of advertisers worried about Musk’s hands-off approach to content management.