Linda Yaccarino May Have the Toughest CEO Job

Here’s a question: How long can someone stay as CEO of a company when the owner of that company is publicly repudiating what they’re saying? Take Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X, previously known as Twitter. On Wednesday, Elon Musk confirmed a report in The Information about layoffs at X’s election integrity team—Musk even went further than what we reported, saying the team was “gone.” Yet in an interview with the Financial Times published earlier on Wednesday, Yaccarino said X was “expanding the safety and election teams all around the world.” Yaccarino doubled down on her statements at the Code conference on Wednesday evening, saying our report was “partial information” as X had hired people for the team that very day. What’s going on?

There may well be a coherent explanation: Perhaps Musk and Yaccarino didn’t like the election integrity team’s work and decided others in the trust and safety operation could handle their jobs. If that’s the case, why not say that more clearly? On that point, The Information contacted X to ask for comment about our story. We heard nothing back other than an acknowledgement that it had received our email. If Yaccarino thought the report was only partly true, why not provide more context beforehand? This isn’t a minor issue: X’s content moderation is a core concern for advertisers, who are still largely steering clear of the platform. Musk may not care about the muddled picture presented, but Yaccarino surely does. Presumably the reason for the confusing message is that Yaccarino can’t control her boss.