“Typical corporate response to someone who will not be missed” — Internet reacts as Elon Musk responds to X CEO Linda Yaccarino’s resignation

Linda Yaccarino announced stepping down as CEO of X in a post shared on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. In her message, Yaccarino, who served in the position for two years, noted she was "incredibly proud of the X team." She also expressed her gratitude to Elon Musk, adding he helped transform it into an "Everything App."

Musk, for his part, reacted to her resignation with a terse comment, writing:

"Thank you for your contributions."

Thank you for your contributions

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 9, 2025

As news of Linda Yaccarino's resignation went viral, internet users were quick to speculate on her reasons. Musk's reply prompted many to wonder if it wasn't friendly. One stated:

"This sounds like a typical corporate response to someone who will not be missed."

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Many continued to criticize Elon Musk's reply, suggesting it was heartless.

"What a heartfelt message of gratitude," one sarcastically remarked.

"Clearly she's above the chaos created daily by Elon and won't stand for it. Bravo for leaving. Retain your integrity," another added.

"“Thank you for your contributions”? Better off saying nothing," a user commented.

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Others spoke in support of Musk.

"Cold, but well deserved. She got canned, Elon let her walk away with some notion of dignity via "resignation". Good riddance!" a person noted.

"Although it is official language, it is appropriate," another chimed in.

"Elon's response to Linda is an example of why he will fail as a politician. Why did he provide a terse response when he could have been kind?" one rhetorically questioned.

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"I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world"—Linda Yaccarino in her X announcement

In her X announcement, Linda Yaccarino expressed her gratitude to Elon Musk for "entrusting" her with the responsibility. Calling it an "opportunity of a lifetime," she added:

"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."

After two incredible years, I’ve decided to step down as CEO of 𝕏.

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. I’m immensely grateful to him for entrusting me…

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 9, 2025

She continued to praise the X team for the "remarkable" turnaround they managed to accomplish. Notably, Linda explained, was referencing user "safety," especially that of children, and restoring "advertiser confidence." She also praised the app's recent features like community notes and X Money.

Linda Yaccarino, who joined as X's CEO in June 2023, concluded her message, writing:

"X is truly a digital town square for all voices and the world’s most powerful culture signal," adding that, "I’ll be cheering you all on as you continue to change the world."

It is worth noting that, while Linda Yaccarino did not elaborate on why she decided to exit the company, her move comes months after Musk sold X to his artificial intelligence-focused venture, xAI.

According to Musk (in his March 2025 X announcement about the same), it would "combine the data, models, compute, distribution, and talent" of the two companies. Per CNN Business' Clare Duffy, this raised questions about Yaccarino's role.

We are aware of recent posts made by Grok and are actively working to remove the inappropriate posts. Since being made aware of the content, xAI has taken action to ban hate speech before Grok posts on X. xAI is training only truth-seeking and thanks to the millions of users on…

— Grok (@grok) July 8, 2025

Further, per NBC News, just yesterday Musk's chatbot (xAI's Grok) wrote several anti-Semitic responses to queries online. This included praising Hitler and even reportedly pushing "patterns" about the Jewish community. Duffy speculated whether the backlash was another potential reason for Linda Yaccarino stepping down.

Linda Yaccarino is not the only executive under Elon Musk to step down recently. According to Live Mint, in the past twelve months, fourteen top officials have quit. This included Tesla's Omead Afshar, the former head of sales in North America and Europe, Vineet Mehta, who was the head of battery architecture, and Brett Weitz, the ex-global head of content, talent, and brand sales at the company.

Further, X execs like Nick Pickles, the former vice president of global affairs; Haofei Wang, the ex-head of product engineering, and Joe Benarroch, who worked as head of operations, all quit the company within the last year.