Linda Yaccarino
Despite Musk’s promise to allow users to interact with him and Yaccarino in a future Twitter Spaces session, it seems that many on both sides of the political spectrum remain dissatisfied with the decision
- Updated May 13, 2023, 5:40 PM IST
In December of last year, Elon Musk took to Twitter to ask his followers whether he should step down as the head of the tech giant he founded. He promised to abide by the results of the informal poll, and 57 per cent of the nearly 10 million people who responded voted “yes.” Five months later, Musk followed through on his promise by hiring Linda Yaccarino, the former chairman of global advertising at NBCUniversal, as the new CEO of the company.
Many Twitter users were quick to criticise Yaccarino, citing her connections to Donald Trump and right-wing extremists on the platform. In 2018, Yaccarino was appointed to the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition during Donald Trump’s presidency. She also reportedly follows a number of accounts that are associated with right-wing extremist views, including the anti-LGBTQ account Libs of TikTok, conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec, and former Trump lawyer Lin Wood, who has been linked to the QAnon movement and has promoted the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
On the other hand, some conservatives were upset by Yaccarino’s past work with the Biden administration on a Covid-19 vaccination campaign, as well as her executive chairmanship of the World Economic Forum (WEF), which has been the subject of many right-wing conspiracy theories.
For Musk, the decision to hire Yaccarino seems to be an attempt to position himself as politically centrist, pleasing neither the left nor the right. However, it remains to be seen how the move will impact Twitter’s user base, particularly given the platform’s history of controversies surrounding misinformation and hate speech.
Despite Musk’s promise to allow users to interact with him and Yaccarino in a future Twitter Spaces session, it seems that many on both sides of the political spectrum remain dissatisfied with the decision.