Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino echoes Musk in focus on freedom of speech

in her first tweet Wire Since becoming Twitter CEO last week, Linda Jacarino on Monday underscored the company’s focus on free speech, a topic that owner Elon Musk favors.

“Twitter’s mission is to be the world’s most accurate source of real-time information and the town square for global communication,” Yaccarino wrote on Twitter and in a memo to employees. “It’s not an empty promise.”

In order to “move civilization forward,” Yaccarino wrote, people need access to “an unfiltered exchange of information and an open dialogue about what matters most to us.” Before joining Twitter, Yaccarino was head of global advertising at NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

Since acquiring Twitter late last year for $44 billion and subsequently seeing the site’s value plummet due to market changes and reduced advertising, Musk has reinstated many accounts previously shut down for violating his predecessor’s leadership. But Musk has also silenced some voices, including suspending the accounts of journalists who have criticized him.

Yaccarino did not address any specific issues or accounts. Nor did she address the various issues that have plagued the site since Musk took over. For example, a recent Pew Research Center survey showed that Twitter power users are posting less frequently than in the past, underscoring the difficulty Yaccarino is facing in rebuilding engagement on the site.

One of Yaccarino’s most pressing challenges is stabilizing the advertising business. Many companies have paused their ad campaigns on Twitter amid concerns about an increase in hate speech and offensive content. In early June, several top Twitter executives responsible for brand safety left abruptly.

“We have the opportunity to cross different fields, form new partnerships, celebrate new voices, and together build something that can change the world,” Yaccarino wrote. “As far as I know, we are born to do this.”

Here’s the full memo Yaccarino sent to employees:

Hello Twitter!
People keep asking me: why Twitter? So, I’ll tell you.
From space exploration to electric vehicles, Elon knew these industries needed transformation, so he did. Lately, it has become increasingly clear that the global city square needs a transformation—to move civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about what matters most to us.
Have you ever talked to someone who is particularly insightful and thoughtful, you are brilliant – everyone should have the opportunity to hear this. Or, I learned a lot from you – can we do it again? Or it could be as simple as that, you should have the freedom to speak your mind. We all should.
Enter Twitter 2.0.
Twitter’s mission is to be the world’s most accurate source of real-time information and the town square for global communication. We’re on the precipice of making history — and that’s not an empty promise. That is our reality.
Anything is possible when you start embracing this powerful vision. You have to genuinely believe — and work for that belief. In this moment of radical reinvention, we have the opportunity to cross aisles, form new partnerships, celebrate new voices, and together build something that can change the world. As far as I know so far, you were born for this.
The success of Twitter 2.0 is the responsibility of all of us.
We need to look at the big picture.
We need transformation.
We need to do all this together.
We can do all this by starting from first principles—questioning our assumptions and building something new from the ground up. It is rare to have the opportunity to place a new future in the hands of every person, partner and creator on the planet.
That’s exactly why I’m here – with all of you.
So let’s go all out (4 inches or flat!) and build Twitter 2.0.
Linda

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