Benarroch Joins Twitter in Business Operations Role

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Facts

  • On Monday, Joe Benarroch, who oversaw communication strategy for NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnership division, will join Twitter in an unspecified business operations role.1
  • In an announcement posted on social media, Benarroch wrote, "I am looking forward to bringing my experience to Twitter, and to working with the entire team to build Twitter 2.0 together."2
  • For more than two decades, Benarroch has worked for several big-name companies, including Starcom, Discover, IPG, AOL, Facebook, and Google. During his 6.5 years at Facebook, he helped annual ad revenue reach nearly $100B.3
  • Benarroch will be reunited with former NBCUniversal advertising head Linda Yaccarino, who’s the new CEO of Twitter. Owner Elon Musk will relinquish the CEO title but remain as executive chairman and chief technology officer.4
  • This news emerges one week after the resignation, for unspecified reasons, of Twitter’s second head of trust and safety Ella Irwin — though it may have pertained to Musk’s criticism of content moderation decisions related to the site.4

Sources: 1Reuters, 2BBC News, 3Business Chief North America, and 4News.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Townhall. It remains to be seen whether the hiring of Benarroch or Yaccarino will be positive for Twitter. Since Musk acquired Yaccarino, conservatives have been skeptical that Twitter will remain on the path toward absolute free speech, and with good reason. Yaccarino comes from liberal NBC, where she publicly voiced liberal viewpoints and seemed like the type of person to bring back the shadow banning of conservatives. Musk’s Twitter still has a lot to prove.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Wall Street Journal. These recent hires will have no impact on Twitter's free speech absolutism, as Musk will still have significant sway in who Twitter hires to run the content-moderation arm of the company and how content is managed. Yaccarino might also have a say, but she’s been brought in more to reassure advertisers and convince them that Twitter, with its nearly unlimited free speech, is a company worth advertising with.