Twitter’s new CEO Linda Yaccarino suggested to Elon Musk in April this that he should consider re-establishing a Twitter “Influence Council” and further “de-risk” the platform to appease corporate advertisers.
Yaccarino interviewed Musk in Miami in front of an audience of advertisers and campaign managers, arguing: “…freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom of reach. What does it mean to the advertisers in this room? Have you de-risked the opportunity or chance of their campaigns landing in these awful, hateful places?”
Yaccarino also suggested there is a necessity for advertisers to be involved in defining what’s suitable on Twitter. According to Musk’s new hire, advertisers “need to feel that there is an opportunity for them to influence what [Musk is] building.”
The NEW CEO Of Twitter?
Linda Yaccarino, a potential new CEO for Twitter, is an executive at NBC Universal and holds a position at the World Economic Forum.
Last month, during an interview with Elon, Yaccarino encouraged him to allow advertisers to have influence on the… pic.twitter.com/zaTBDlJRbr
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) May 12, 2023
Elon’s Tweets.
During the conversation, Yaccarino brought up Musk’s own tweets on two occasions. She suggested he was “too provocative,” and that he should not tweet late at night to avoid offending potential advertisers and risk losing investment in the company:
“Most news organizations have a co-dependent relationship with Twitter, and I can speak on behalf of the industry but I’ll speak on behalf of my own company. We have a big partnership with your company – [a] big distribution partnership – [there are] days where I see some of your tweets and I say… I wish I could say: stop helping the situation. But should you be held to a different or higher a standard that you’re the owner but you also have the most followers and a lot of people think you might be too provocative?”
Moreover, she added:
“You probably shouldn’t tweet after three am… will you commit to be a little more specific and not tweet after three am… people in this room would like to see that.”
Musk, however, was quick to counter the assertions.
“If I were to say yes, you could influence me that would be wrong,” replied Musk, “that would be very wrong because that would be a diminishment of freedom of speech.”
Yaccarino interjected again, “I wanna be specific about influencing: it’s more of an open feedback loop for the advertising experts in this room to help develop Twitter into a place where they will be excited about investing money – product development, ad safety, content moderation, that’s what the influence is.”
Influence Council.
According to Yaccarino, a potential solution for de-risking Twitter would be to re-establish, what she refers to as, the “populated, much-loved Influence Council,” which previously dictated would could or could not be said on the website:
“So Twitter 1.0 had a very well-populated, much-loved influence council. I think we need to change the name – Elon doesn’t want to be influenced – but it was really a recurring feedback loop from your key stakeholders – your advertisers – where they have recurring access… to you. Would you commit from this stage today to reinstate that council? To be named later?”
Musk replied, “I would be worried about that creating a backlash against the public. Because if the public thinks their views are being determined by a small number of CMOs in America they will be… upset about that.”
Linda Yaccarino.
Since taking Twitter over, Elon Musk has insisted he does not see himself remaining the company’s long-term CEO. However, the announcement that Yaccarino would be Musk’s replacement has left many confused and concerned, especially those who trusted in Musk so much they signed up for his $11-a-month “Twitter Blue” subscription.
Before being announced as the new Twitter CEO, Yaccarino spent 11 years as chairwoman of global advertising at NBC Universal as well as operating as an executive chairwoman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).
As a WEF executive, she has been “highly engaged with the Value in Media initiative,” which aimed to reshape online discourse towards “civility” and reduce the chance of politically incorrect speech being tolerated online.