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X Chief Says She Is Leaving the Social Media Platform

CyberMacGyver

One time they let her speak publicly it turned out to be a disaster. She never had any say and worst part is she was not even a good fall guy, it was clear who’s pulling the strings. The most immaterial and inconsequential hire ever.

I love all the replies on Twitter thanking her but during her time the valuation dropped 80% and they were suing advertisers for not advertising. Remarkably inept.

sorcerer-mar

It's weird that you say both she had no material power and also seem to imply the valuation drop and lawsuits were due to her ineptitude?

Anyway she volunteered to be a puppet for a man who is clearly off the rails and her legacy will forever be stained.

josefresco

Both things can be true: Valuation did drop during her tenure, AND she was not to blame.

Therefore the praise is weird, because she seemingly neither helped nor hurt the business.

Spooky23

[delayed]

madeofpalk

One would imagine that a CEO lacking power is the precise reason a company would perform poorly.

mandmandam

> she was not to blame.

Fall guys bear some of the blame in the fall.

My long-held [0] personal theory - borne out by everything Musk has done, and by who bought Twitter - is that it was bought to curb the possibility of large positive social movements along the lines of OWS or BLM.

Enabling that can entail being useless at your supposed job, while doing your actual job (which deserves some amount of blame, from a number of perspectives).

0 - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36685384

lenkite

> Valuation did drop during her tenure

Valuation also bounced back during her tenure.

xnx

> her legacy will forever be stained

Where can I sell my legacy for $6 million/year?

danans

> Where can I sell my legacy for $6 million/year?

I know you meant your comment as sarcasm, but to do it, you need to have a legacy worth those kind of numbers to begin with, instead of selling your labor as most of us here do. It's not so different that celebrities associating themselves with brands through advertising.

And as distasteful as it seems to many of us, people like her spend years building their social networks and a reputation for various personality and behavioral traits in a boardroom.

Also, I doubt her legacy is closed at this point. The traditional next step would be to write a book based on her career capped off by her experiences at Twitter.

abirch

My question is where does she go from here?

Like if she became my CEO, I'd really worry about my company/job.

null

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belter

I will do it for half that price....

oooyay

There's a market for CEOs that are "puppets" or managed by another CEO. In that way I doubt her reputation is necessarily stained as anyone making that much money lives in a different world and under different terms than (presumably) you and I do.

sorcerer-mar

Oh sure, I have no doubt she can get another cushy job if she wants it. I just mean that she has revealed herself as a coward at best, and a deplorable snake at worst.

scyzoryk_xyz

She was hired to perform stunt, a nose-dive with the company.

Folks hired for something like that aren’t in it for “legacy”.

mcphage

(1) She had no power

(2) If she did have power, nothing good happened during her tenure, so what would she even be thanked for?

sorcerer-mar

I'm not suggesting she should be thanked. I'm suggesting that the failures listed are hard to ascribe to her ineptitude.

olalonde

You may not like Elon Musk but he's doing remarkably well for someone who is "clearly off the rails".

feoren

Yes, corruption pays. Although if "doing remarkably well" means being addicted to ketamine, having many exes and children who refuse to speak with you, tanking multiple businesses to the point that your products get sabotaged just for being associated with you, getting booed off stages, licking the boots of fascists in the hope they'll let you call them "daddy", paying people to play online games for you to impress nerds (unsuccessfully, instead getting online-bullied for it), etc., etc., then I think I'd rather not "do remarkably well", thank you very much.

Elon does not seem like a happy man. Is money the only points humans score themselves by? It's like watching someone bragging about getting the highest ever score at a game that they hate.

thomassmith65

Elon Musk is doing well now the same way Elvis Presley or Howard Hughs were doing well in their final years.

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jauntywundrkind

Really good call out. Hitting someone from above & below seems not quite square.

In my view, there was plenty of opportunity to make a mark & do things, even with a ultra involved Musk.

But this person didn't bring much product leadership, didn't have a vision for the product. Having good business relationships might have been its own core competency, but whether Linda's fault or no, suing and going after businesses to try to score some vengeance for your own terrible behavior, and maybe coerce some people back: that's a terrible tactless look, that one would hope a leader like Linda could have helped steer away from.

babypuncher

I don't think this is what was happening. It's weird that people are thanking her when she functionally did nothing of value while the company has been spiraling. Either she was complicit in the whole thing, or she really did nothing at all. In either case, what is there for the users to thank?

mrtksn

I don't think she ever was a fall guy, Elon run a poll on should someone else be CEO of Twitter and lost the poll. It was quite entertaining, He didn't seem happy with the outcome and probably had to pay CEO level salary due to the stunt.

joot82

She was mainly brought on to fix relationships with advertisers, they were just pulling out that time because of rampant nazi and hate speech (by users) on the platform, after they fired the content moderation teams. I think she did what she could over the last 2 years and some of the ad revenue came back, but after the latest MechaHitler escapades I guess she got some texts from people...

cm2012

Twitter valuation dropped for two primary reasons:

1) Most tech valuations dropped about 50%-80% in between Elon's offer and Reddit formally accepting it. This was the end of the 2021 tech boom.

2) Elon being a moron and turning off brand advertisers in any way he can when direct response ads don't really work on the platform.

bhouston

> The most immaterial and inconsequential hire ever.

I understand she did convince a lot of advertisers to come back and provided a veneer of credibility.

odo1242

Genuinely, I wasn't even aware that Musk had actually done the initially promised thing of appointing a different CEO.

reactordev

Top executives fail upwards. She did exactly what she set out to do.

Invictus0

She got her bag and got out. Seems perfectly rational to me.

gorwell

False. Among other things, 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, banking institutions, and astroturfed lynch mobs.

anigbrowl

Bullshit. Look how normal it is for people on X to cens*r c*rtain w*rds to avoid having their posts downranked.

leakycap

When I saw this news, my first thought was that she lasted about 1 year and 11 months longer than I expected after the first few weeks.

I know Twitter had many terrible aspects, but I do miss the world voice old Twitter provided for quotes that could be engaged with in an "everyone is here" kind of feeling that doesn't exist on any other platforms right now.

kylebenzle

Of course I hate what Elon has done to Twitter but you're feeling previously that everyone was there was an illusion brought on by massive propaganda and manipulation of the conversation. The same thing has happened to Reddit now, well it feels more inclusive and open it's actually an incredibly controlled enclosed system that only allows one specific viewpoint. Now of course to the people inside that bubble it feels like freedom but to everyone else it looks like a liberal echo chamber.

For example, when the actual owner of the at Bitcoin handle wasn't pushing the narrative that Jack Dorsey wanted they hijacked the moniker and gave it to a pro b Blockstream (THE COMPANY THAT CONTROLS THE BITCOIN CODE BASE) individual. For most people that support Bitcoin and blockstream it looks like a victory of free speech but in reality they're just controlling more and more of the speech and kicking out anyone from the conversation who disagrees.

kragen

Possibly leakycap is thinking about 02012 and you're thinking about 02018. In that case you'd both be right about Twitter.

fkyoureadthedoc

> liberal echo chamber

It skews one way, but there's definitely a large diversity in opinions on Reddit that are not hard to find. It's also transitioning into an India social media site, just from sheer population numbers.

apwell23

I was banned from reddit ( not subreddit) like completly banned from all of reddit because i responded to an indian post saying

"why do westerners hate indians, what did we do to them"

with

"maybe precieved as online scammers and also mass immigration into high paying jobs"

swarnie

Reddit really doesn't.

I commented on a particular sub (in opposition to what i think the core hivemind is there) and was immediately banned from about 30 others.

Reddit is the most insular, single minded set of communities I've seen on social media. I dont think you can claim diversity if the userbase all wall themselves off from each other with bots.

krunck

All caps don't make it true.

thordenmark

I would gladly pretend to be CEO for the kind of pay she got. Blame it all on me, I'll take the money and go retire in Hawaii.

navigate8310

Defending an unhinged white nationalist would surely attract a lot of off-the-hook folks even when you retire.

denysvitali

There are probably cheaper places to retire (that will guarantee a longer retirement) than Hawaii - but your idea is good

barbazoo

The cheapest option is death, but even that costs you your life.

banana_giraffe

denysvitali

TIL you can "gift" NYTimes articles access. Sounds weird but thanks stranger!

Edit: and to pay back (?), https://archive.is/Cn2hA

Hoasi

X has been nothing short of an exercise in brand destruction. However, despite all the drama, it still stands, it still exists, and it remains relevant.

mrweasel

More and more I think Musk managed to his take over of Twitter pretty successfully. X still isn't as strong a brand as Twitter where, but it's doing okay. A lot of the users who X need to stay on the platform, journalists and politicians, are still there.

The only issue is that Musk vastly overpaid for Twitter, but if he plans to keep it and use it for his political ambitions, that might not matter. Also remember that while many agree that $44B was a bit much, most did still put Twitter at 10s of billions, not the $500M I think you could justify.

The firings, which was going to tank Twitter also turned out reasonably well. Turns out they didn't need all those people.

throw310822

And btw, how many features have been brought live since Musk's takeover? If I'm not wrong, at least: long tweets, paid subscriptions, community notes, native video (?), grok... Anything else? Seems quite a lot after years of stagnation.

moomin

I think it’s hard to conclude that the people weren’t needed given how spectacularly it tanked.

mrweasel

Has it tanked? X is still running, it still has millions of users.

egorfine

Same opinion. I absolutely hate what he did to Twitter and never in my life I will call it "X" - BUT - it is thriving.

isleyaardvark

Estimates are that its revenue has decreased by half. Even if Musk decreased operating expenses enough to keep or even increase profits, a 50% drop in revenue is not at all a good sign for the health of business.

BolexNOLA

Thriving? Its valuation has tanked since his purchase and last I read they’re still actively losing users.

threetonesun

Well sure if you give up on moderation, and close the platform to people who aren't signed in, and shut off the API then yes you didn't need the people supporting those parts of the platform.

And I guess if you consider "the place with the MechaHitler AI" as good branding there's no arguing with you that it's doing just as well as Twitter.

mrweasel

I don't agree with the direction Musk has set for X, but businesswise it's not doing worse. Twitter was a financial catastrophe before the take over, so you didn't need much improvement. Moderation was a financial drain, the API didn't make them any money and none of the users seems to care all that much about the platform not being open to users without an account... because they all have accounts and wasn't able to interact with you anyway.

The media seems to get a good laugh out if Grok arguing the plight of white South Africans and is fondness to Hitler, but I'm not seeing journalists and politicians leaving X in droves because of it.

rockemsockem

I will fondly remind folks that Grok isn't even the first LLM to become a Nazi on Twitter.

Remember Tay Tweets?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tay_(chatbot)

Honestly I really don't think a bad release of an LLM that was rolled back is really the condemnation you think it is.

alpha_squared

Which really says a lot about how hard it is to leave platforms. The network effect is hard to overcome.

taurath

There's no technical reason that one couldn't move from platform to platform and link identities - the restrictions around IP and platform lock-in only benefit the platform owner, ensuring that competition will be stifled rather than the platform made useful for its users.

The sad part is that ad networks know more about our connections across platforms than we're allowed to.

gchamonlive

There is also no technical reason people have to stay, because tech isn't the problem here. The value in these platforms aren't in the range of features they provide, but the engagement between individuals and the community and the value of the information it generates.

guywithahat

I certainly wouldn't call it brand destruction, a lot of people returned to X and while the branding has changed, I certainly wouldn't call it brand destruction

rtkwe

They had managed to get a verb into relatively common speech and their revenue has collapsed since the Musk take over I'd say it's pretty thoroughly destroyed.

guywithahat

I find this X doomsday talk is pretty isolated to reddit/other minor social media sites. The site itself is doing fine, and maintains a strong investor/startup ecosystem, with a slight fall in usage after the election (which isn't uncommon for Twitter/X). My understanding is that a few advertisers threatened to leave and then returned after a few days/weeks.

It's a private company now so I don't know what their revenue looks like but they certainly don't seem to be low on cash given how much they've invested in AI. You may not use X but it's definitely not "destroyed" lol

sergiotapia

X saved free speech online. Without Musk acquiring it, we would have continued to slip into this franken-Resetera level of discourse. Thank God!

X is the platform where everyone can speak as long as it doesn't break the law. That's fantastic. If you don't like a particular subject, you can just move on. That's what the internet was in the 2000s!

sixothree

I feel like I need to shower every time I end up there. The place is repulsive to me.

null

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lokar

[flagged]

rvz

..and 3 years later has a combined valuation with xAI of $113B.

Those waiting for X to collapse are going to wait a lot longer than the original 6 months that it was predicted to collapse after the November 2022 takeover.

djeastm

>..and 3 years later has a combined valuation with xAI of $113B.

This might be like Stacey King, a Chicago Bulls player, jokingly claiming he and Michael Jordan "combined to score 70 points" on a night when Jordan scored 69 points

shortrounddev2

"Dinesh, don't fall for his “aw, shucks" routine. He is a shrewd businessman, and together, we have over $20,036,000 at our disposal"

matwood

> ..and 3 years later has a combined valuation with xAI of $113B.

Haha...ok. I gave a bunch of stock from one of my companies to another one of my companies and made up a value during the transaction.

CyberMacGyver

xAI tried to raise $20 billion in equity in April but wound up with only $5 billion & had to issue $5 billion in junk bonds last week. You can value yourself $44 billion but the market doesn’t think it’s anywhere close

moomin

To misquote an adage: Elon Musk can stay irrational longer than I can stay solvent.

ctenb

She is leaving the company, not the platform

BryanLegend

True. It's a misleading headline.

eviks

> I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me

But he didn't? She wasn't even in the loop for many of the consequential decisions

rwmj

Rule #0 is you don't disparage the company on the way out. She may even have a contractual obligation not to.

ceejayoz

Even barring a contractual obligation, "do I want to be the target of an angry tweetstorm that might result in real death threats" is a consideration.

TechDebtDevin

Just wait until Musks enters his "John Mcaffee in exile(but with much more resources)" era, which I think is going to come soon. Then all these people will talk.

Or maybe his "Howard Hughes in Hiding" era. Remains to be seen which route he takes. Could also be "Rasputen shot in the ** era" if hes not careful.

libraryatnight

"This has been wonderful but it's time to step away and spend some time with family" lol

eviks

"him" is not a company. Also not saying isn't disparaging.

tshaddox

Replace “entrusting” with “paying.”

phendrenad2

She stepped in and did a job, nothing more nothing less. I don't see this as a failure, the post-Elon Twitter is not a company that operates based on traditional characteristics, and I don't know what a CEO even does for such a company. It's obvious that Elon put her in charge to appease advertisers, but that gimmick only works for so long.

Anyway, I wouldn't have made it as long as she did. Being in charge of a cesspool of racist, misogynistic, antisemitic content like that is a fate worse than unemployment.

flockonus

X was gobbled by another of Elon's AI company, no doubt to reduce some of the mess. So yes, a CEO there effectively does nothing.

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/musks-xai-buys-social-...

fundad

At least she can claim the success of getting the company sold, even if it was to a sibling company under X Corp.

alganet

Is this another case of "may this sacrifice appease the rain gods and bring forth a good harvest"?

JKCalhoun

Perhaps that and "Let me just disembark this sinking ship if I may…"

(Sorry she ever boarded?)

alganet

I mean more generally, in the sense that all public executive firings done to increase stock value (or prevent it from falling) are not that different from sacrificial cults.

throwaway150

namenotrequired

> the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable.

I mean she’s not wrong!

layer8

> As always, I’ll see you on X

So she’s not actually leaving the platform, just the company.

robertlagrant

Yes, I thought it meant she was deleting her Twitter account while remaining CEO!

DealFl0w

"Chief [Executive Officer]" isn't a role on the platform, it's a role with the company.

namenotrequired

The title does literally say she is leaving the platform

myko

So dumb some people call it "X"