Twitter has confirmed the appointment of Linda Yaccarino as its new chief executive.

The news was first alluded to last week, when current chief exec and owner Elon Musk confirmed that the social media platform has identified a new boss and that she would start in around six weeks.

This led to a tidal wave of speculation, with the Wall Street Journal’s report that NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino was the name proving correct. The timing however put Yaccarino in something of a precarious position, as the news broke shortly before Yaccarino was due to present at NBCUniversal’s 2023 upfronts – a pivotal event for US broadcasters to secure ad spend for the upcoming TV season.

Yaccarino will also serve as the chief exec of X, Musk’s promised ‘everything app’, while the South African billionaire confirmed he will transition to chief technology officer.

Replying to a Tweet from Musk announcing the news, the incoming chief exec said: “I've long been inspired by your vision to create a brighter future. I'm excited to help bring this vision to Twitter and transform this business together!"

The former richest man in the world who bought Twitter for an inflated price of $44 billion in October posted a poll in December in which he said he would resign should the platform’s users vote that way. A resounding 57.5 per cent of users voted for him to step down as chief executive officer, though he was later coy on publicly addressing the vote.

Since its acquisition by Musk, Twitter has massively downsized its number of employees by roughly 80 per cent. This number includes many of its executives such as previous chief exec Parag Agrawal. Since the mass layoffs, Twitter has suffered multiple major outages, while users and pundits have noted increased instability on both the web and mobile apps.

Musk, a self-proclaimed free-speech absolutist, also significantly reduced the level of moderation in the platform and restored the accounts of open neo-Nazis and far right figures such as Nick Fuentes and twice impeached US president Donald Trump. Despite this advocacy for free speech, Musk notably removed an account which used publicly available information to track his private jet on the grounds that it endangered his safety.

The more relaxed approach to moderation taken by Musk’s Twitter has seen ad revenue on the platform nosedive, with 50 of Twitter’s top 100 advertisers pulling out within a month of the takeover.

Arguably Musk’s biggest and most controversial decision as owner and chief exec of Twitter has been the rushed introduction of Twitter Blue – a subscription service which provides enhanced features to paying users and serves as Musk’s hail mary to make up for the loss of ad revenue.

These subscribers now have a blue twitter check mark next to their name previously reserved for celebrities, organisations and other noteworthy accounts. So-called ‘legacy’ accounts had their checkmarks removed last month, with figures ranging from Beyoncé and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Pope losing the signifier which was initially introduced to verify they were legitimate.

Critics of Musk’s handling of Twitter have accused Yaccarino of being a ‘glass cliff’ appointment – the phenomenon where women (and members of other minority groups) are put into positions of power during times of crisis where failure is more likely.

Influential digital media advisor Heidi N. Moore has argued as much, tweeting: “This is a classic glass cliff situation, in which a failing company hires a woman to clean up messes made by arrogant men. Then she becomes the scapegoat because it's impossible to clean up.”

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