“#RIPTwitter” has trended from time to time for various reasons since Elon Musk took over in October 2022.
But on Friday, it was trending because Musk’s fanbase of basement dwellers is big mad that he’s giving his job to a…woman.
Musk first announced on Thursday that he was taking a step back from his position as the once-essential social media platform’s CEO.
And he teased his replacement with a…pronoun.
“Excited to announce that I’ve hired a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!” Elon tweeted.
My role will transition to being exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops.”
That set off an incel frenzy of speculation on Thursday night. But the snowflakes fell harder on Friday when Musk announced who “she” is:
Linda Yaccarino, the former head of ad sales for NBC/Universal.
Yaccarino “will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology,” Musk tweeted. “Looking forward to working with Linda to transform this platform into X, the everything app.”
It’s unusual for rich white male narcissistic misogynists to concede any of their power to a woman, so it’ll be interesting to see how Yaccarino handles her new gig.
Harassment on Twitter increased exponentially in the Trump years and has only gotten worse since Musk took over.
Yaccarino got a taste of what a lot of us have been living with for years once the announcement was made.
The replies to Elon’s tweets about Yaccarino would’ve gotten the users banned in the old Twitter days.
But thanks to paying a billionaire $8, they can do it and get away with it.
They must’ve missed the part where Donald Trump appointed Yaccarino to his Council on Sports, Fitness, and Nutrition in 2018.
(lol)
Here’s hoping Yaccarino takes a good hard look at the Verification process as one of her first tasks.
Her blue check protects her the way it used to protect all of the other women on Twitter who earned their “Legacy Verified” checks in often not-great ways.
I’ve made suggestions on how to fix the mess Musk made by making misinformation and money matter the most.
He’s not a very good listener, but maybe Linda will lean into these ideas after a full day of her mentions full of Muskboi misogyny.