So the news has been out for several hours at this point, making it old news in this day and age, but yes, Elon Musk is actually handing over the reins of Twitter. He has done it, he committed to buying Twitter and he committed to passing it on, and he has done just that. The social media site will be passed on and then Musk can go back to Tesla and SpaceX and leave our online world alone (though that’s doubtful).
It has been a rollercoaster ride ever since he bought/was forced to buy the social media platform in October of last year. Since he took over, it feels as if the news has been non-stop regarding his handling of the acquisition, from mass layoffs, to paid-for blue checkmarks, to allowing formerly banned individuals back on the site.
It wasn’t even two months into his role as CEO that Musk was made well aware that people were not happy and he set up a poll to let the people decide if he should step down as the head of Twitter. The results came in pretty quickly with the majority, 57.5%, voting that he should indeed relinquish control. His response, in true grown-up mature fashion, was,
“I will resign as CEO as soon as I find someone foolish enough to take the job! After that, I will just run the software and servers teams.”
Well it appears he has found that one “foolish” person, announcing the news on Twitter.
The prime candidate appears to be Linda Yaccarino, NBC’s Head of Advertising as well as a Chairperson for the World Economic Forum. The latter is giving the right wing a huge pause though, given their distrust of the WEF. This is a woman who knows how advertising works in the modern digital landscape, having worked NBC for over a decade, finding and implementing ways to effectively measure the efficiency of advertising.
She will be taking control of a sinking ship, one that has been sinking for some time but, under Musk’s leadership, started to break apart like the scene from the Titanic. With decades of experience though, Yaccarino could be the person to turn the ship around. Thanks to her positions on equality, diversity and inclusion though, the alt-right are already coming for her on the platform she will soon be in control of.
Also, the fact that she follows certain controversial figures means that the far-left is also not her biggest fan, meaning she lands somewhere in the middle of all the mindless hate and rage. Welcome to social media in 2023. Let’s see if she can at least hold on longer than Musk managed.
