Elon Musk is said to have taken away the new name of the Twitter account from a user

2023-07-27 14:44:00

Twitter is now called X Elon Musk is said to have taken the new name of the official Twitter account from a user

Elon Musk pushes Twitter rebranding to X

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Twitter is becoming X – slowly, but bit by bit. Now Elon Musk has also ensured that the company can communicate on the platform under the new name – even if it previously belonged to another user.

longtime Twitter users have had to get used to many changes on the platform over the past few months – and few have been excited about them. On the contrary: A real exodus took place with the short message service, many users turned away.

That didn’t stop owner Elon Musk from introducing another drastic innovation. Twitter no longer bears its world-famous name, but is now called X. Musk has also renamed the company’s official account accordingly – to @X. But that wasn’t so easy at first, because this unusual handle actually already belonged to another user. San Francisco photographer Gene X. Hwang secured it for his personal account many years ago.

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Now Hwang is rid of his account – and apparently without direct consultation with Twitter. The photographer told the “Mashable” portal that his username had simply been taken away from him. He was only informed of this by an email from Twitter. The short message service would have offered him to move his account with all followers and tweets to an account called @X12345678998765. Alternatively, he could have chosen another profile name that was still available.

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In fact, Hwang now tweets under the relatively complicated name assigned to him by Twitter – and the company now communicates as @X on its own platform. On Tuesday, Hwang said to “Techcrunch” that no Twitter employee had contacted him about the account name. But he’s not averse to parting with his handle if Twitter makes him an offer “that makes sense.”

However, there does not seem to have been at least financial compensation. Twitter offered him merchandise and a meeting with management, Hwang told Mashable, and hinted that he wasn’t interested in at least a meeting. Nevertheless, he also wants to stay on the platform with his new account – whatever the name is.

Sources: “Mashable” / “Techcrunch” / Gene X. Hwang