X (formerly Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino has been urged to resign after the company’s owner Elon Musk endorsed an antisemitic post.
Several advertising executives want Yaccarino to resign from her role after advertisers as advertisers leave X. According to a CNN report, a “groundswell” of advertising executives urged Yaccarino to step down as the CEO of X to save her reputation before it was damaged.
“I sent her a text yesterday after thinking about it long and hard saying that,” said chief executive of marketing consultancy AJL Advisory Lou Paskalis.
Paskalis said, “My advice was to leave before her reputation was damaged”. However, Yaccarino is not willing to leave her position the Financial Times reported.
Apparently, the top executive believes in X’s goals and the people working there. In fact, she took to X to indicate that for now, she is not going anywhere.
X CEO Refuses To Resign From Her Role
“I believe deeply in our vision, our team, and our community,” the X CEO posted on Monday. “I’m also deeply committed to the truth and there is no other team on earth working as hard as the teams at X,” she added.
Elon Musk has been catching flak for publicly endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory on X. It also comes after reports from the non-profit group Media Matters for America found advertisements for high-profile brands next to pro-Nazi content.
As a result, leading brands like IBM, Apple, Walt Disney, Comcast and Warner Bros suspended their advertising on the platform. To make things worse, other companies are sparing no effort to distance themselves from Elon Musk’s social media platform.
What we’re doing at X matters and has everyone’s attention. I believe deeply in our vision, our team, and our community. I’m also deeply committed to the truth and there is no other team on earth working as hard as the teams at X. When you’re this consequential, there will be…
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) November 20, 2023
“Our work is critical, but it’s not always easy. What we’re doing matters, which means it naturally invites criticism from those who do not share our beliefs,” she said, adding that X has taken steps to “combat antisemitism and discrimination,” Yaccarino said about her commitment to the company’s work.
The platform accused Media Matters of searching for such content in a way that “misrepresented the real user experience” and could “mislead advertisers”.
However, X did not remove the pro-Nazi accounts referred to in the Media Matters’ report, claiming their posts had little engagement and that they would no longer be eligible for monetization.
“No critic will ever deter us from our mission to protect free speech,” Yaccarino said in the letter. Now, X has sued Media Matters, alleging the organization defamed the platform by publishing a report that said ads for popular brands had appeared next to posts promoting Nazism.
