Thomas Lyons 
Elon Musk, the owner of Twitter, has confirmed that Linda Yaccarino, an advertising executive, will become the new CEO of the social media platform. Ms Yaccarino left NBCUniversal on the same day with immediate effect, and will focus on the operations of the business, while Musk will remain in charge of product designs and new technology. This announcement comes a day after Musk revealed that he had hired a new CEO, a woman whose name has not been disclosed. The speculation that Yaccarino would be the successor was fuelled by NBCUniversal’s announcement that she was leaving the media giant immediately, without providing details about her next move.
In a tweet on Thursday, Musk said: “Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO (chief executive officer) for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” San Francisco-based Twitter was renamed X Corp, according to Musk and court filings revealing a merger of the technology companies. Musk said his role will transition to being executive chairman and chief technology officer, “overseeing product, software and sysops”. He also added that the commitment to open source transparency and accepting a wide range of viewpoints remains unchanged. This was in response to remarks from political commentator and producer Alex Lorusso, known on Twitter as Alx, that free speech on the platform remains a “top priority” for Musk “regardless of who the next” boss is.
Mr Musk has previously joked that his dog Floki took over as chief executive. It followed a tweet in December, just weeks after the takeover, saying: “I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job.” The pledge came after millions of Twitter users asked him to step down in a poll Mr Musk created and promised to abide by. He has had a tumultuous start to his journey at the platform, laying off about 80% of its 8,000 global staff and admitting it resulted in it losing a large amount of its functionality. He also oversaw the scrapping of legacy “blue ticks”, which verified a user’s identity and were replaced by a paid-for subscription called Twitter Blue. High-profile figures and celebrities said the move leaves the platform open to imposters and disinformation. But Mr Musk said the rules are “more about treating everyone equally” as there “shouldn’t be a different standard for celebrities”.
