X CEO brags about 'de-amplifying' 'lawful but awful’ posts to attract advertisers — says Twitter is 'much healthier and safer' now

X/Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive, boasted about how the social media platform has been "de-amplifying" posts that it determines to be "awful," in an effort to make more money and bring key advertisers back.

Yaccarino also remarked on the "autonomy" she has from owner Elon Musk since taking over in May 2023.

The New York Post reported on Yaccarino's interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street,” during which she commented on platform policies that are part of a wider effort make Twitter profitable. This included rebuilding its ad revenue from major advertisers, such as Coca-Cola and Visa, who have returned to the platform.

As recently as June 2023, Twitter's ad revenues were down a reported 59%.

To combat this, Yaccarino said that the company's policy has been "freedom of speech, not reach." With this policy, content that is deemed inappropriate or "lawful but awful" gets "labeled" and subsequently censored, but not completely.

The CEO appeared to imply that advertising would not appear next to such seemingly offensive content: “You get de-amplified, which means it cannot be shared and it is certainly demonetized,” Yaccarino said. “So they are protected from the risk of being next to that content," she added.

Critics have argued for years that social media companies have secretly labeled and down-ranked content that they disapprove of, which prompted strong backlash and accusations of shadow bans.

Musk recently revealed that popular Twitter account "Libs of TikTok" was shadow-banned due to sharing photos from Pride parades that included nudity.

"Your account was labeled as [not safe for work] by our d**k pic bot on 6/26, because you posted media with nudity from Pride parades," Musk tweeted.

"Corrective action is to label the individual posts as NSFW, rather than the whole account. Should be fixed now," he also said.

Yaccarino also noted that the site is a “much healthier and safer platform than it was a year ago."

As well, Yaccarino mentioned during the interview that she and Musk have "very clear" roles at the company, with the owner focused on “product design” and “new technology” while she covers “running the company, from partnerships to sales to legal to finance.”

“I have a great partner in Elon. It’s been eight incredibly supportive weeks," she said.

The new CEO said that X is "close" to breaking even and thinks a potential cage match between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be a “great brand sponsorship opportunity.”

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