Twitter's new CEO Linda Yaccarino promised users of the social media company on Monday they would have free speech when they post comments, mirroring the sentiment of her new boss.
Yaccarino, a former advertising executive, said people should tweet freely and can expect not to be censored, emulating a line of thinking from the owner of Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk, who also is CEO of Tesla.
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"Have you ever been talking with someone particularly insightful and thought, you should have the freedom to speak your mind. We all should. Enter Twitter 2.0," she tweeted.
Yaccarino, who has no experience running a social media company, took the helm from billionaire Elon Musk, in May.
Echoing Musk's sentiment, she also views Twitter as a town square and appeared to suggest that changes need to be made at Twitter.
"It's also becoming clear that the global town square needs transformation—to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue about the things that matter most to us," she tweeted.
She did not provide more details on how tweets would be viewed or if rules regarding censorship would change.
Her emails to employees at Twitter on Monday shared a similar purpose - that she is on board to follow Musk's goals.
"Twitter is on a mission to become the world's most accurate real-time information source and a global town square for communication," Yaccarino wrote. "That's not an empty promise. That’s OUR reality."
Yaccarino posted her emails in a series of tweets, according to Ryan Mac, a reporter for The New York Times.
Her comments appeared to make large promises but provided scant details.
"We have the opportunity to reach across aisles, create new partnerships, celebrate new voices, and build something together that can change the world. From what I can tell so far, we’re built for this," she tweeted.
She also mentioned the future of Twitter but did not provide details again.
"The success of Twitter 2.0 is all of our responsibility," Yacarrino tweeted. "We need to think big. We need to transform. We need to do it all together."
Twitter's Censorship
While Twitter has touted more free speech, the social media company has censored some tweets at the demand of government requests.
In May, Twitter complied with the Turkish government's request to restrict certain content amid the presidential election.
Even though Musk has claimed he condemns censorship, which he views as a threat to free speech and has called himself an "absolutist" defender of freedom of speech, he has agreed to censorship requests.
The platform complied with requests from the Turkish authorities in the days leading up to the presidential election to block some tweets. Twitter made certain tweets from Turkey unavailable, but did not provide details on what content people were unable to view.
Twitter only said that if the posts were unavailable inside Turkey, the tweets in question remained accessible from foreign countries..
"If we lose freedom of speech, it’s never coming back," Musk said. "Beware of censorship lest ye censored."
Yaccarino Faces Challenges
The timing of Yaccarino's helm at Twitter could be troublesome.
Since Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion last October, advertisers have fled in droves.
The company's valuation has dropped by at least half and some advertisers are hesitant to return.
In a Twitter Spaces on June 5, Musk admitted to the company's severe financial challenges. “Half of our advertising disappeared overnight because we’re insisting on free speech… they’re literally trying to drive Twitter bankrupt,” he said.
Advertising revenue accounted for over 91% of Twitter's revenue in the second quarter of 2022, the last period for which data are available.
But Musk fails to take responsibility for driving advertisers away. After he acquired the company in 2022, the billionaire not only slashed the company's headcount by a whopping 69%, he also reinstated accounts that Twitter had previously banned because they posted racist, anti-Semitic, hateful and misogynistic comments.
The company has allowed offensive tweets to remain, drawing ire from users of the platform.
Advertisers have extremely unhappy with the recent changes made to Twitter. Fed up with the problems that multiplied after Musk took over the company, some have allocated their advertising budget to other social media platforms.
