Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of social media platform X, announced that she will be stepping down from the post after joining the platform in May 2023.

Before joining X, she worked for NBC Universal, and before that for Turner Broadcasting System for 15 years. Yaccarino joined X after the platform was acquired by Elon Musk in 2022.

“After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of X,” she said in an X post on July 9.

“When [Elon Musk] and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App.

“I’m incredibly proud of the X team - the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable. We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence.”

She spoke about the work done on Community Notes, X Money, and X AI.

She did not provide her reason for quitting the platform. As of publication time, she has not updated her LinkedIn profile.

“Thank you for your contributions,” Musk said in response to Yaccarino’s post.

Musk acquired X, then known as Twitter, for $44 billion, promising to return free speech to the platform. Following the acquisition, many major advertisers began a boycott of the platform, leading to a tremendous loss of revenue.

Some of the brands, such as General Mills, General Motors, and United Airlines, went public with their decisions to cut advertising spending on X. One of the reasons given by companies was the alleged proliferation of “hate speech” on the platform.

Musk responded to the corporate stance in a 2022 post.

“Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation and we did everything we could to appease the activists,” Musk said at the time.

When Yaccarino joined X in 2023, many conservative commentators decried the decision, fearing a reversal back to speech moderation practiced on the platform before Musk’s acquisition.

“She represents advertisers, and her natural inclination is to limit speech, and pander to those who push woke ideology on the world,” Billboard Chris, an advocate against gender ideology, said in an X post on May 12, 2023. “You will have to watch her like a hawk.”

Musk stood with Yaccarino. He replied to Chris’s tweet: “I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.”

Since the 2024 elections, many advertisers have returned to X.

“Just want to say that we super appreciate major brands resuming advertising on our platform!” Musk said in an X post on Nov. 15, 2024. “Thanks [Linda Yaccarino] and the whole X team for your hard work in restoring confidence in our platform and ensuring that advertising content only appears where advertisers want it shown.”

Since Yaccarino joined X, the platform has maintained its dominance in online social discourse, with X’s AI chatbot Grok hitting more than 35 million users earlier this year based on numbers from ExplodingTopics. Grok was launched in late 2023.

“We started with the critical early work necessary to prioritize the safety of our users—especially children, and to restore advertiser confidence. This team has worked relentlessly from groundbreaking innovations like Community Notes, and, soon, X Money to bringing the most iconic voices and content to the platform,” Yaccarino said in an X post on July 9.

“Now, the best is yet to come as X enters a new chapter with @xai. X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal. We couldn’t have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world.”

According to a report from EMarketer, X’s ad revenues are projected to hit $2.26 billion in 2025. This is a significant increase from $1.94 billion in 2024 but considerably lower than 2022’s $4.14 billion, before Musk’s takeover.

X currently has about 586 million monthly active users, according to Statista data.