Time and again, Ms. Yaccarino has faced similar situations, as Mr. Musk is always one whim away from undoing her work. Ms. Yaccarino’s task of repairing and remaking X’s business over the past year has been complicated by Mr. Musk’s seeming disregard for the advertising industry and his constant unraveling of her efforts, according to interviews with more than a dozen advertising executives, X employees, former colleagues and friends.

After the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, for instance, Ms. Yaccarino told several major advertisers that she and X would work to fight antisemitism. The next month, Mr. Musk approvingly replied to an antisemitic theory on the site.

On Nov. 18, Ms. Yaccarino called on advertisers to come back to X to show their solidarity with the social media platform’s commitment to free speech. Shortly afterward, in a fit of petulance, and with Ms. Yaccarino sitting a few feet away, Mr. Musk went onstage at The New York Times’s DealBook Summit and used an expletive — three times — to tell advertisers in the audience that they could take their business elsewhere.

It’s almost like a game of corporate Whac-a-Mole, which Ms. Yaccarino is doing her best to master.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/27/technology/linda-yaccarino-x-ceo-elon-musk.html