Elon Musk has announced his leadership plan for Twitter to a frosty reception on his platform and beyond. Linda Yaccarino will be the new CEO of the social media company Musk bought for $44 billion in October of 2022. Ms. Yaccarino comes to Twitter from Comcast’s NBCUniversal media conglomerate. She worked there for over eleven years in several roles, most recently as chair for global advertising and partnerships. That job, plus her extracurricular activities, have led many to conclude she is no friend to liberty or free speech, in contravention of Musk’s stated goals for the platform.
A Fox in the Henhouse?
On Thursday, May 11, Musk tweeted: “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” He said he would transition to executive chairman and chief technology officer, “overseeing product, software & sysops.” Ms. Yaccarino was widely rumored to be the choice, and NBC announced she was leaving “effective immediately” on Friday. Then Musk announced Yaccarino as his choice, welcoming her and saying she “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design & new technology.”
In addition to her work as advertising chief for NBC, the incoming Twitter CEO has some significant other positions she touts on her LinkedIn page. She is a board member of the Ad Council and The Female Quotient. In addition, she is the Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, the sponsor of the conference of the same name in Davos, Switzerland, which may be famous or infamous, depending on the observer. The World Economic Forum is seen by critics as a tool for advancing merged interests of banking, multinational corporations, and governments, without regard for individual liberty or the little guy.
Yaccarino is the former chairman of the board and current executive board member of the Ad Council. The non-profit was conceived and formed in the 1940s as a pro-war propaganda tool for the US government. That’s not this author’s opinion, but an autobiographical description from the organization:
“The organization is incorporated as the Ad Council on June 25, but was quickly renamed the War Advertising Council with the intention of mobilizing the advertising industry around WWII efforts, producing propaganda including ‘Women in War Jobs,’ ‘Buy War Bonds,’ and ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships.’”
Punctuation Power!
Linda Yaccarino (Photo by Isaac Brekken/Variety/Penske Media via Getty Images)
More recent Ad Council efforts include support for vaccine mandates and pro-same-sex relationship campaigns – and a massive push in 2020 into antiracism efforts, AKA Black Lives Matter support and coalescing around the George Floyd riots. The Female Quotient, where Ms. Yaccarino serves as a board member, “is a woman-owned business working with companies and conscious leaders to curate experiences, thought leadership, and solutions designed to achieve gender equality in the workplace and beyond.” Its next event, announced on the homepage, is called “UNPACKING YOUR PERIOD POWER.” It offers to “empower people with uteruses in the workforce,” discussing “the introduction of paid menstrual leave in Spain to period poverty and the pink tax.”
All political inclinations and interests reflected in her bio seem to accrue to progressive, big government, establishment, and anti-freedom groups. The reaction to her appointment was swift and severe. Perhaps the most cogent and detailed rebuke came on Twitter from user Billboard Chris (@BillboardChris), named for Chris Elson, a campaigner against early childhood gender reassignment surgery. He tweeted a list of troublesome items regarding Yaccarino, including:
During her interview with you, she was most excited about your initiative to limit reach of tweets which are deemed hateful. “Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach.”
In fact, that was her main selling point to the advertising execs in the audience, as she kept coming back to it.
She went on to chastise you twice for tweeting after 3am, because people are concerned about that sort of behavior. What?
She also wanted advertising execs to be part of an influence council within Twitter.
She‘s not here to improve the user experience. She wants Twitter to be a ‘safe space.’
She represents advertisers, and her natural inclination is to limit speech, and pander to those who push woke ideology on the world. You will have to watch her like a hawk.
She was also thrilled to spend $100,000,000 on social justice initiatives while at NBC, and forwarded government authoritarian propaganda that the way back to a normal life was to “wear your mask!”
No doubt she’ll bring in advertising revenue in the short term, but she’s a long-term mistake.
Musk replied directly to Elson via Tweet, writing: “I hear your concerns, but don’t judge too early. I am adamant about defending free speech, even if it means losing money.” He also said he would participate in a Q and A “where you can ask us anything.” That’s cold comfort for those who see in Ms. Yaccarino a passion for institutional control over freedom.
