Twitter chief executive Linda Yaccarino’s arduous balancing act has begun. In an email to employees Monday, the new CEO, who was brought in to bring back the advertisers spooked by Elon Musk’s leadership, vowed to make Twitter “the world’s most accurate real-time information source” as well as a place for celebrating “new voices” and reaching “across aisles.” Her message, which Yaccarino also relayed in a series of tweets—packed with corporate-speak and HR-friendly buzzwords—was ostensibly meant to shore up morale among employees. But it was also likely a pacifier for all of the major brands that have grown concerned by the political makeover Musk ushered in after acquiring Twitter last year. 

In large part, it has been Musk’s Twitter takeover, and perhaps his own tweets, that have caused major brands to jump ship. And unfortunately for Yaccarino’s PR offensive, he is not going away any time soon. Musk, who is still serving as Twitter’s executive chairman and chief technology officer, remains fixated as ever on right-wing racial politics and culture-war battles: He recently tweeted a meme that propagated the “groomer” smear that conservatives have leveled against LGBTQ+ educators.

Those posts are not entirely incompatible with the “Twitter 2.0” project put forward by Yaccarino, even if they hamper her ability to balance Musk’s free-speech absolutism with the feelings of wary advertisers—namely, the big-spenders who account for the vast majority of Twitter’s revenue. “Elon knew space exploration and electric vehicles needed transformation, so he did it,” wrote Yaccarino. “It’s also becoming clear that the global town square needs transformation—to drive civilization forward through the unfiltered exchange of information and open dialogue,” she continued, adding, “You should have the freedom to speak your mind.”

Still, it seems unlikely that Yaccarino, a former advertising executive at NBCUniversal, can make Twitter both an anything-goes content exchange and a desirable destination for corporate ad spending. If anything, her introductory statement was a repackaged version of Musk’s past comments, with Yaccarino deferring to his view of Twitter as the “global town square,” a term Musk has used to justify the presence of far-right content and users shunned by the platform’s prior executives.

Musk’s “town square” fantasy has thus far led to a massive drop in advertiser revenue and an explosion in racist, homophobic, antisemitic, and antitrans posts. But it has also noticeably upped the platform’s appeal among Republicans, inspired Governor Ron DeSantis to announce his presidential campaign on Twitter, and has even lured Tucker Carlson, arguably the most popular voice in conservative media. Following the abrupt cancellation of his Fox News program in April, Carlson began airing a new show exclusively on Twitter, despite remaining under contract with Fox through December 2024. (The network has sent Carlson a cease-and-desist letter, Axios reported earlier this week.)

As for Musk, he’s said he has no interest in softening his tone for the sake of advertisers, telling CNBC last month, “I’ll say what I want, and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.” And from the likes of Musk’s latest attacks on a new product released by Apple—which happens to be one of Twitter’s top ad partners—he’s still very much married to that motto.