Twitter is on its way to becoming just X as Elon Musk continues to rebrand the company. Being the official name, it makes sense for the @x Twitter username to be used by the company. The problem is, somebody already used it first, and Twitter didn't exactly handle the takeover smoothly.
@X was Taken Without Warning
The actual owner of the handle was Gene X Hwang, who works in the photography and videography studio Orange Photography. The company only acknowledge the takeover after it had already been done, but they did try to make up for it.
Twitter, now X, thanked Hwang for his loyalty to the platform, as well as offered him merchandise from X and even a tour of the company headquarters. As mentioned in Tech Crunch, the gesture was meant to be a reflection of their appreciation.
Although Twitter had all the power to take the handle, some would argue that Hwang deserved financial compensation since there are marketplaces that sell usernames for a large sum. The former owner of @x even said he was open to discussing the takeover with the company.
Hwang stated that he was fine with Twitter taking the handle and that he always felt like something like that could happen. The company told the former owner that all his account data would be transferred to a new account handle of his choosing.
He even joked that maybe he could ask for the bird sign from the headquarters since they were dismantling it. Given that his new username is now @x1234567998765 compared to just @x, he might actually deserve it.
If anything, taking the username without warning was the least problematic thing in the entire rebranding campaign. It turns out that the tech giant hasn't gone over the process of securing the intellectual property rights to the name "X."
Other companies like Microsoft and Meta are said to have claims to several "X" trademarks. Right now, the actual site is still a mix of both Twitter and X. While the logo is no longer the iconic blue bird, the button for publishing a post is still a "Tweet" button.
Moreover, other attempts to build up the image of the new X haven't gone well. As the company tried to take down the sign on its headquarters in San Francisco, the police showed up and caused the workers to halt, although it turned out to be a misunderstanding.
Rebranding Might Be a Mistake
For years, X has been Twitter, and people associated it with the blue bird icon. With the change, it seems like the company is wasting the years it took to build up the brand. The plain white X is also not as eye-catching as its former logo.
Twitter could still be the "everything app" Musk wanted it to be without the extensive efforts of changing the face of the social media giant, not to mention that it hasn't been going swimmingly. If anything, Twitter or X might do better with the original blue bird logo.
