Musk's new Twitter CEO could heal damaged brand, advocates say

Civil rights and free speech advocacy groups are optimistic Elon Musk's appointment of a former NBCUniversal executive will move the platform in a safer direction for advertisers and users alike.

Elon Musk officially announced Friday that he's handing over the reins of Washington's favorite app to Linda Yaccarino, who just resigned as NBCUniversal's chair of global advertising and partnerships. Advocacy groups say Yaccarino has the opportunity to improve the platform's trust and safety operations.

"I would think as a successful advertising executive, she is well aware of the fact that platforming and privileging extremists alienates advertisers and offends the vast majority of users," Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in an interview.

Likewise, Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, stressed the need for a Twitter CEO to protect democracy. "It is our hope that the integrity of the platform will be reestablished and that disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech are dispelled. Failing to do so will put lives at risk and further dismantle our democracy," he said in a statement.

Musk's hiring of Yaccarino — who will start in about six weeks — suggests he may be attempting to lure back more big name brands with an exec who worked at NBCUniversal in advertising for over a decade. Musk tweeted that she'd focus on business operations and he would transition to being an executive chair and chief technology officer "overseeing product, software & sysops."

Musk also tweeted, “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app." Musk had alluded over the last year he wants to transform Twitter into an "everything app" like China's WeChat, but that could pose more regulatory headaches for the rule-averse billionaire.

Since Musk purchased Twitter last October, some watchdogs reported a surge in racial slurs. And Musk himself moved to reinstate MAGA politicians like former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) as the billionaire weakened Twitter's suspension policy to favor "free-speech absolutism."

In the aftermath of all that, more than half of the top 100 advertisers left the platform — leading to a dramatic drop in the platform's revenue.

Adam Kovacevich, the CEO of tech trade group Chamber of Progress, said that content moderation is ultimately good for business. "The platforms that see user growth and gains in ad revenue take content moderation very seriously and work to keep their online communities safe. Yaccarino will know from her ad experience that Twitter's long-term success depends on strong content moderation practices," he said in a statement.

Still, some groups remain skeptical that much will change under Yaccarino's leadership, and called on Congress to regulate harmful information on platforms like Twitter.

"As long as Congress refuses to regulate tech platforms like a majority of Americans want them to do, it does not matter whether the CEO of Twitter is Musk, Yaccarino, or a ham sandwich," said Kyle Morse, deputy executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, which is funded by the Omidyar Network run by billionaire tech critic Pierre Omidyar.

"Until then, social platforms like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube will continue to spread hate speech, right-wing extremism, violence, and disinformation because it is profitable for them to do so."

Matt Berg contributed to this report.