On Friday, Elon Musk introduced that NBC Universal’s Linda Yaccarino will function the brand new CEO of Twitter. Yaccarino is a longtime promoting govt credited with integrating and digitizing advert gross sales at NBCU. Her problem now will likely be to woo again advertisers which have fled Twitter since Musk acquired it final 12 months for $44 billion.

Since taking possession, Musk has fired hundreds of Twitter workers, largely scrapped the trust-and-safety staff answerable for preserving the location freed from hate speech, harassment and misinformation, and blamed others — significantly mainstream media organizations, which he views as untrustworthy “competitors” to Twitter for advert {dollars} — for exaggerating Twitter’s issues.

In April, the 2 met for an on-stage dialog at a advertising and marketing conference in Miami Beach, Florida. Here are some highlights of their dialog:

MUSK AND YACCARINO SPAR OVER CONTENT MODERATION

The Miami dialogue was cordial, though each individuals drew some distinct strains within the sand. On a number of events, Yaccarino steered the dialog towards problems with content material moderation and the obvious proliferation of hate speech and extremism since Musk took over the platform. She couched her questions within the context of whether or not Musk may assist advertisers really feel extra welcome on the platform.

At one level, she requested if Musk was keen to let advertisers “influence” his imaginative and prescient for Twitter, explaining that it might assist them get extra enthusiastic about investing extra money — “product development, ad safety, content moderation — that’s what the influence is.”

Musk shut her down. “It’s totally cool to say that you want to have your advertising appear in certain places in Twitter and not in other places, but it is not cool to to try to say what Twitter will do,” he mentioned. “And if that means losing advertising dollars, we lose it. But freedom of speech is paramount.”

MUSK REPEATS: NO SPECIAL INFLUENCE FOR ADVERTISERS

Yaccarino returned to the difficulty a number of moments later when she requested Musk if he deliberate to reinstate the corporate’s “influence council,” a once-regular assembly with advertising and marketing executives from a number of of Twitter’s main advertisers. Musk once more demurred.

“I would be worried about creating a backlash among the public,” he mentioned. “Because if the public thinks that their views are being determined by, you know, a small number of (marketing executives) in America, they will be, I think, upset about that.”

Musk went on to acknowledge that suggestions is vital, and instructed Twitter ought to goal for a “sensible middle ground” that ensures the general public “has a voice” whereas advertisers concentrate on the strange work of enhancing gross sales and the notion of their manufacturers.

PRESSING ELON ON HIS OWN TWEETS

Musk didn’t cross up the chance to promote the assembled entrepreneurs a brand new plan to unravel Twitter’s issues with objectionable tweets, which the corporate had introduced the day earlier than. Musk known as the coverage “freedom of speech but not freedom of reach,” describing it as a solution to restrict the visibility of hate speech and comparable issues with out truly eradicating rule-breaking tweets.

Yaccarino took a swing. “Does it apply to your tweets?” Musk has a historical past of posting misinformation and sometimes offensive tweets, usually within the early morning hours.

Musk acknowledged that it does, including that his tweets may also be tagged with “community notes” that present extra context to tweets. He added that his tweets obtain no particular boosts from Twitter.

“Will you agree to be more specific and not tweet after 3 a.m.?” Yaccarino requested.

“I will aspire to tweet less after 3 a.m.,” Musk replied.

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