Opinion
Hurricane Elon, two weeks after making landfall on Twitter
by Coya Vallejo Hägi
Twitter: Elon Musk resigns
12.5.2023
Translation: machine translated
The 51-year-old billionaire Elon Musk has announced on Twitter that he will soon step down as head of the communications platform. A successor is already in place.
He had found a new managing director. She will start in six weeks. With these words, Elon Musk announced his resignation as CEO of Twitter. He did not give a specific name. "My role will transform into that of a board chair and chief technology officer, overseeing product, software and sysops," Musk further explained.
His time as Head of Twitter so far has been marked by several controversies and much chaos, as my colleague Coya Vallejo Hägi described in her opinion piece.
For example, Musk has laid off about half the workforce. This included the entire top management as well as important departments to monitor against hate and agitation on the social media platform and have accounts of disagreeable journalists blocked. He also set up short-term rules for publications on Twitter, but took them back again a short time later.
We want you out!
So Musk turned many Twitter users against him, who promptly voted in favour of his resignation as Twitter's CEO in a poll he conducted in December last year, with around 57.5 per cent voting in favour. In response, the 51-year-old billionaire announced that he would step down as soon as he found someone "foolish" enough to take the job.
The rumour mill is bubbling
But who will be foolish and reckless enough to take this job? We don't know yet. However, American news sites "New York Times", "Variety" and "Wall Street Journal" concur that it will be Linda Yaccarino - currently head of advertising at media conglomerate NBCUniversal.
Source: NBCUniversal
In April, she interviewed Musk at an industry event and has always spoken positively about him in the past. The media group owns US network broadcaster NBC and streaming service Peacock, among others. Only recently, Twitter and NBCUniversal announced that they will intensify their cooperation around the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games in Paris. For example, highlights and a daily live Twitter show will be published on the platform.
By the way, HBO has secured the Elon Musk documentary by Oscar-winner Alex Gibney ("Taxi to the Dark Side") in the US. The documentary is described as the unvarnished truth of the controversial billionaire and CEO of Tesla, Twitter and SpaceX.
Update: Elon Musk has now confirmed Linda Yaccarino as Twitter's new CEO.
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