It's safe to say that no one envies the position that X CEO Linda Yaccarino is in right now. The executive's job seems to be putting out fires that Elon Musk started, and the X owner hasn't learned his lesson with yet another controversial post.
Yaccarino Calls the Exodus Temporary
Unwavering hope for the company must be part of the job description as Yaccarino continues to be optimistic about X's future. In a memo, she tries to lift the spirits of her team by saying that there is no platform that's working hard to protect free speech like X.
Furthermore, the executive referred to the advertisers exodus as "temporarily paused investments." She claimed that these were prompted by a misleading and manipulated article and that "the data will tell the real story."
The "data" could be Elon Musk's posted screenshot which shows the company's intentions of suing Media Matters, to which the latter responded saying that Musk has spent the last few days making meritless legal threats.
In addition to that, Media Matters pointed out that the X owner is "elevating bizarre conspiracy theories, and lobbing vicious personal attacks against his 'enemies' online," which is why brands are reluctant to partner with X even if he does not go through with the lawsuit, as per The Verge.
With several reports stating that Musk's posts are antisemitic, Yaccarino continues to defend the company saying that they have been extremely clear about their efforts to combat antisemitism and discrimination.
Musk, just yesterday, claimed that there have been hundreds of bogus media stories claiming that he was antisemitic, and that "nothing could be further from the truth." Unfortunately for both Yaccarnio and Musk, the damage has already been done.
With the current state of the social media platform, the company CEO has tasked her son, Matt Madrazo to make amends within X's political advertising business. As this continues, X's value might drop even further by the end of the year.
Musk's History of Scaring Advertisers Away
Linda Yaccarino is just doing her job by keeping the company afloat despite Musk continuously poking holes at its hull. However, it has been proving to be more difficult especially since the owner has had a bad track record when it comes to posting on X.
Specifically, a controversial post costing the company its advertisers has already happened before. Just a year prior in November 2022, big companies like General Motors and Pfizer also cut ties with X, concerned about the growing number of hate speech and misinformation on the site.
With his recent criticized post, more giants like Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, IBM, and Apple have decided to conclude their business with X. Musk even used the same threat, but instead of a "thermonuclear name & shame," it's now a "thermonuclear lawsuit," as per Independent.
Elon Musk even said that many of the largest advertisers are the greatest oppressors of people's right to free speech. What's confounding is that the tech billionaire's strategy of encouraging business partners to come back is by threatening them.
