What just happened? Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, has announced that she is resigning from the company just two years after Elon Musk hired her for the role. Yaccarino never gave a reason for her leaving, which comes a day after xAI's Grok started posting messages that praised Nazi ideology and described rape fantasies.

"After two incredible years, I've decided to step down as CEO of X," Yaccarino wrote in her resignation message on the platform.

"When @elonmusk and I first spoke of his vision for X, I knew it would be the opportunity of a lifetime to carry out the extraordinary mission of this company," the post continued.

"I'm immensely grateful to him for entrusting me with the responsibility of protecting free speech, turning the company around, and transforming X into the Everything App. I'm incredibly proud of the X team – the historic business turn around we have accomplished together has been nothing short of remarkable."

Yaccarino certainly has had a wider variety of problems to deal with at X compared to most other CEOs. Musk hired her in June 2023, almost a year after his protracted $44 billion purchase of what was still called Twitter.

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Yaccarino, who was previously an executive at NBCUniversal focusing on advertising and partnerships, spent a lot of time at X both wooing and battling advertisers.

In August 2024, X sued a group of ad companies, along with individual firms, over an alleged coordinated boycott of the site. Yaccarino was X's public face in the suit, posting the video message below.

The CEO has also had to defend Musk's actions and behavior on many occasions. When the world's richest man was asked about advertisers who had left X – the result of ads appearing next to pro-nazi content and his own promotion of a post arguing that Jewish communities push hatred against whites – he told the companies to "go f**k yourself."

Yaccarino later posted a response to what she called Musk's "candid interview." She said he offered an apology, explanation, and explicit point of view about the firm's position.

The timing of Yaccarino's announcement comes a day after xAI, which acquired X in March, updated Grok to make it more "politically incorrect." The result was a series of posts from the chatbot that certainly lived up to the promise.

While some believe Grok's actions were a tipping point for Yaccarino, fuelled by a lack of explanation for her leaving, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News that her exit had been in the works for more than a week.

Musk responded to Yaccarino's resignation post with, "Thank you for your contributions."

Image credit: World Economic Forum