Elon Musk has set the bluebird free! Twitter is embracing its new logo after Elon Musk announced that Twitter would adopt the X logo. The bold initiative taken by Musk is not about renaming the company, but reshaping its identity. It does not seem like the Tesla owner is satisfied with the rebranded logo.
The updated logo was a modest departure from the original—a white “X” on a black background—and the letter was drawn with slightly thicker lines. But the name is allegedly stolen from the original Twitter account owner.
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Whose Twitter Account Owner’s Name Did Elon Musk stole?
According to Mashable, the original X username belonged to an old user Twitter user Gene X Hwang who has been using it since 2007. Hwang is actually a co-founder of Orange Photography, an event photo company. Unlike many users, Hwang’s Twitter username only had a single letter. Usernames on websites are unique and can’t be replicated to protect users’ online identities.
Although Gene X Hwang told Mashable that he has not received any financial compensation from Twitter for the X username. He recalled, “I got an email basically saying they (Twitter) are taking it (username)”. He also added that Twitter once offered him an alternate account with X in the username. Hwang’s new Twitter username reads x12345678998765.
The former owner of the username @/X reveals he received an email from Twitter/X notifying him that the handle would be taken from him.
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 26, 2023
In return, he was offered free merch and the chance to meet management.
🔗: https://t.co/Ib2f15TTyZ pic.twitter.com/2y8ozQs80a
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Does Elon Musk’s Company Have the Right to Take the Username?
Is Gene X Hwang getting a paycheck in exchange for his username? Sadly the company just took it away from him. He previously told Mashable he was waiting for Twitter (or X now) to contact him so he wasn’t previously in contact with the company. He hadn’t heard from X before that. There was no back-and-forth discussion.
Elon Musk’s company is within its rights to take the username. Speaking about trademark issues, the users don’t have rights to specific handles according to most social media companies terms of service. However, Twitter has been considering launching a service where users could bid on unused, rare handles to avoid many more Hwang situations.
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