CEO Linda Yaccarino vows Twitter to be the "world's most accurate real-time source of information"
The new head of the social networking company shared her first email to all employees in which she requested support in building "Twitter 2.0, the world's most accurate source of real-time information."
She wrote to the employees, "The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility...We can do it by starting from first principles--questioning our assumptions and building something new from the ground up".
Last year, the world's richest person, Elon Musk, bought Twitter after founder Jack Dorsey gave up the CEO job. Since then, the microblogging site has been embroiled in countless controversies. Musk received a barrage of criticism for his approach to including false information on the platform. Additionally, the controversial Musk takeover resulted in massive layoffs. He welcomed far-right and controversial figures onto the platform, scaring off higher-paying advertisers.
Last month, Musk tapped advertising executive Linda Yaccarino to take over the day-to-day responsibilities at Twitter. Yaccarino, former head of publicity for NBCUniversal, echoed Musk's goal in the mail. She said, "From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation. so he did it. More recently, it has become increasingly clear that the global town square needs transformation- to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information".
Born into a family with Italian roots, Yaccarino has developed her career on television. At NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of cable operator Comcast, she redesigned her advertising strategy to support the shift from traditional television to streaming programs online. According to the NBCUniversal website, Yaccarino led a team of 2,000 people. She combined the group's channels on a single platform to optimize advertising campaigns.
In mid-April of this year, she interviewed Musk at the "Possible" marketing conference, where she suggested that "advertisers should feel like they have an opportunity to influence what they're building." She argued that the goal is to make Twitter a place where advertisers are excited to spend money on marketing, saying that involves content moderation, user safety and product development.
Yaccarino's direct style and sharp insights from her visibly intrigued Musk. And a month later, Musk mocked Yaccarino's hiring, saying in a tweet that she had hired a woman to replace him as head of Twitter and the newly-appointed parent of X Corporation, but without disclosing her name.
In another tweet, Musk later wrote that he would remain in charge of design and technology at Twitter, with Yaccarino focusing primarily on business operations and turning Twitter into an "everything app" called X. Yaccarino will face an uphill battle trying to woo back major advertisers who fear unwanted associations with conspiracy theorists and far-right content creators whom Musk encouraged to return to Twitter.