Linda Yaccarino of X Corp. stated that under the leadership of Elon Musk, the company formerly known as Twitter is a more secure and sounder environment than in the past. She added that she had autonomy when Musk was in charge and was included in all aspects of company operation. The head of the company put an emphasis on the fact that brands were returning to the platform and that new control tools are being implemented to guarantee their security.
CEO Linda Yaccarino of X Corp. informed CNBC that she has autonomy under owner Elon Musk in a Thursday interview, adding that advertisers ought to be at ease with coming back to the platform under her command. Yaccarino identified with the post on X (formerly known as Twitter) that publicised her hiring, where Musk underscored his ongoing control over product and development. She told CNBC's Sara Eisen that her role was "all else" included in "running the organization".
Questions have been raised about Yaccarino's autonomy under Musk, given his major oversight of the business and his other pursuits, including Tesla and SpaceX. Yaccarino, who was the previous global advertising head at CNBC parent company NBCUniversal, also stressed X Corp.'s endeavor to enhance the advertiser experience, after brands left from the platform following Musk's procurement of Twitter.
Hate speech and possibly illegal content spread during the days and weeks after Musk assumed control of the platform, as previously reported by CNBC and NBC News. Brands were unwilling to take the risk of having their advertising appear next to such content, leading to a mass departure of advertiser dollars. Yaccarino highlighted X's trust and safety team and argued that X is "stronger" than it was when it was traded on the public market. She added that although one might not agree with all posts, X has systems in place to protect advertisers from content that may be potentially harmful.
Twitter disbanded its ethical AI team in November and laid off all but one of its members, together with 15% of its trust and safety division, which put a stop to the ethical AI team's work on "algorithmic amplification monitoring", or tracking elections and political groups to see if "content was being intensified in a way that it shouldn't", according to Rumman Chowdhury, the team's former lead who spoke to CNBC in May.
For Yaccarino, reconstructing advertiser trust presents a challenge. Musk has suggested that user engagement constantly reaches new heights, yet the company has yet to present solid data to validate this. She mentioned that a few companies, such as Coca-Cola, Visa, have already returned to advertise under her leadership as a result of her direct communication with marketing and communications executives.
Yaccarino said that brands are now "shielded from the danger of being next to" potentially toxic content. She added that, if the content is "lawful but dreadful" then it is difficult to remove the content from the platform; yet, the company's new content controls would reduce advertiser risk. Yaccarino told Eisen that employment has stabilized at 1,500 employees, down from 8,000 employees pre-acquisition. She stated that the job losses, which happened before her accession, were a "absolutely needed cost control exercise".
Yaccarino was unconvinced of the danger Meta's Threads posed, commenting that engagement has declined since its launch. Despite this, she emphasized that “you can never take your eye off any competition” as Meta has already gathered considerable ad revenue from Instagram and Facebook. When asked about a potential showdown between Musk and Zuckerberg, Yaccarino said that “Elon is training” and that it would be an “excellent branding opportunity” should it take place.
CNBC's Hayden Field relayed this information.
top of page
bottom of page
Comments