CEO of X (formerly Twitter) Linda Yaccarino has bowed out of appearing at the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference, set to take place Oct. 16-18 in Laguna Beach. This follows her poorly received interview at Vox Media’s Code Conference, which did little to allay fears about the future of the platform.
Wall Street Journal columnist Joanna Stern shared the statement sent by the company. She did so, appropriately enough, also on X.
“Linda Yaccarino will be unable to attend the WSJ Tech Live conference next week. With the global crisis unfolding, Linda and her team must remain fully focused on X platform safety,” the statement reads.
It did not specify whether it was referring specifically to the situation with terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing retaliation, or other elements of current international issues.
Yaccarino’s justification for skipping the conference was met on X with widespread skepticism, with many pointing to how she fared in her Code Conference appearance as the actual reason. Verge tech journalist Gloria Sin replied, “I mean at least her team realizes she’s not ready for the big leagues yet.”
That skepticism has also arisen from the platform removing traditional verification, letting go most of the X staff that worked on content moderation, promoting posts from users who pay for memberships and giving them financial rewards for views, as well as numerous statements by owner Elon Musk indicating a lack of interest in traditional social media safety measures.
Shortly after the Code Conference, Yaccarino was still planning to proceed with the interview, Business Insider reporter Ben Bergman shared late last month. She’d previously pulled out of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women event, before her Code Conference interview, citing scheduling conflicts, according to Fortune’s Kylie Robison.
The X CEO played up the platform’s attention to truth and safety in recent posts, including pointing to the site’s Community Notes feature that lets users who opt in add context to X posts and help reduce misinformation. Following the attacks in Israel, she wrote on Sunday, “In every moment (even in the most difficult of times) X is committed to giving people information as quickly as possible. Above all, we are hoping and praying for peace.” That post included a quote-tweet of the platform’s @Safety account about Community Notes.
