Linda Yaccarino, the Ex of X

She did her best to manage Elon Musk, protect free speech on X, and appease advertisers.

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has become an ex-X CEO. She is stepping down after two years at the helm of Elon Musk's social media site, formerly known as Twitter, which he purchased in October 2022. Musk hired Yaccarino in June 2023 to run Twitter and rebranded it as X the following month.

In her departure announcement, Yaccarino thanked Musk for the opportunity and touted her accomplishments.

"X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world's most powerful culture signal," wrote Yaccarino. "We couldn't have achieved that without the support of our users, business partners, and the most innovative team in the world."

Musk penned a short reply, thanking her for her contributions. Yaccarino also received affirmation from many conservative, libertarian, and independent commentators, including Megyn Kelly, Michael Shellenberger, and Charlie Kirk, who credit her with guiding X through a tumultuous time and luring advertisers back to the site while living up to Musk's free speech commitments.

Less kind parting words—indeed, he sounded vaguely threatening—came from Steve Bannon, an archenemy of Elon Musk. In a characteristically wild rant on his own news show, Bannon said of Yaccarino: "You can run, baby, but you can't hide." He vowed to pursue her with lawsuits and other measures, though he also implied that she was a stabilizing force for the platform and that Musk's erratic behavior would be uncontrollable without her.

Some background here: Musk and Bannon have been vying for influence over President Donald Trump from the outset of his second term. They represent two very different contingents of the MAGA base: Bannon's faction is stridently anti-immigration and inclined toward tariffs and economic populism, whereas Musk is somewhat more pro-immigration and in favor of free markets and economic libertarianism.

Unfortunately, Musk and Trump have fallen out hard over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which Musk rightly considers to be a monstrosity that adds trillions to the deficit. Musk is so furious with Trump that he now plans to create a new third party, the America Party. Bannon, on the other hand, is still a loyal Trump disciple, though neither faction is thrilled with the president's recent military attack on Iran—one thing that mostly unites right populism and tech libertarianism is a preference for restraint over intervention.

Then there's the Jeffrey Epstein client list debacle, which has been deflating for MAGA enthusiasts of all stripes. The most rightwing media-savvy Trump administration officials promised the base that they would release bombshell revelations about the notorious sexual predator and other famous figures in his orbit—but when push came to shove, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino all whiffed. The administration's new position is that there's nothing more to say about Epstein's clients, and Trump himself was vexed that he continues to receive questions about it.

BREAKING: AG Pam Bondi responds to why a minute was missing in the Jeffrey Epstein prison video, Trump says talking about Epstein is a waste of time.

Reporter: Could you say why there was a minute missing from the jailhouse tape on the night of his death?

Trump: Are you still… pic.twitter.com/uUGH16TW0m

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 8, 2025

Musk has suggested that Trump, and also Bannon, are actually in the Epstein files, though what exactly he means by that is anyone's guess. It's already widely known that Trump had dealings with Epstein; those associations supposedly ended after Epstein's initial misconduct came to light in 2006.

Musk eventually deleted his post on X accusing Trump of being in the Epstein files. He's still going hard after Bannon, however.

"The fat, drunken slob called Bannon will go back to prison and this time for a long time," wrote Musk on X. "He has a lifetime of crime to pay for."

Grokkk?

All of this is just to say that Yaccarino might have finally decided she needed to take a mental healthy day, and that day needs to last forever. Musk is a brilliant innovator who has built some wildly successful companies, but he also seems difficult to manage. He assigned Yaccarino an incredibly difficult task: Bring X's moderation more in line with a First Amendment understanding of what speech would be allowed on the platform without spooking advertisers who don't want their products appearing alongside hate speech, racism, and outright pro-Nazi advocacy.

What's going on with Grok, X's artificial intelligence chatbot, certainly wasn't going to make Yaccarino's job any easier, though her departure was already in the works prior to this latest development. Musk apparently prompted coders to redesign Grok to be more inflammatory and politically incorrect; as a result, it suddenly became trivially easier for X users to induce the chatbot to engage in vile, anti-Semitic, explicitly pro-Hitler shitposting. This feature requires swift correction by Musk's team; censorship-inclined European regulators are already treating Grok's descent into madness as something that necessitates government intervention.

Linda stood up and fought for free speech during arguably its most acute crisis moment in world history when we were almost on the brink of losing it. She stepped up for all of us in the face of what seemed like insurmountable pressure from governments, advertisers, boycotters,… https://t.co/uHQcCj6957

— Mike Benz (@MikeBenzCyber) July 9, 2025

I fully understand why Yaccarino might not want to be the person in charge of managing all these different expectations, personalities, and pressures, though she seemed like the right woman for the job.

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This Week on Free Media

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Worth Watching

I was on vacation in Sicily last week. (I even got engaged!) Consequently, I watched a few movies on the long plane ride. First up was Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I expected it to be just another typical, pointless sequel—and that's exactly what it was. I'm a fan of the original movie, but I wouldn't recommend this one unless you, like me, were stuck on a plane and had already drained the battery on your Nintendo Switch.