Elon Musk reveals why he’s rebranding Twitter to X – as police disrupt company’s sign removal | Science & Tech News

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Elon Musk has mentioned the Twitter identify “doesn’t make sense” as he rebrands the platform into an “the whole lot app” known as X.

The world’s richest man has not been shy of placing his personal stamp on the positioning he bought for $44bn (£38bn) last October and has now launched into essentially the most dramatic change in its 16-year historical past.

Musk spent the weekend teasing an imminent reinvention and unveiled a new name and logo yesterday.

His want to impose sweeping adjustments to such a recognisable social media model prompted confusion, however the SpaceX and Tesla proprietor defended the transfer in a late night time tweet.

“The Twitter identify made sense when it was simply 140 character messages going forwards and backwards – like birds tweeting – however now you may publish virtually something, together with a number of hours of video,” he mentioned.

“Within the months to return, we’ll add complete communications and the power to conduct your total monetary world.

“The Twitter identify doesn’t make sense in that context, so we should bid adieu to the hen.”

Earlier, Musk had declared tweets now be generally known as x’s.

What’s ‘the the whole lot app’?

Musk has lengthy spoken of his want to show Twitter into an “everything app” modelled on China’s WeChat.

It combines options like messaging, funds, a market, and public posts into one place.

Musk mentioned he purchased Twitter “as an accelerant for X”, a letter with clear sentimental worth to him.

Not solely is it a part of the identify of his rocket agency, but additionally one of his children; a synthetic intelligence start-up he launched earlier this 12 months; and an internet financial institution he co-founded in 1999 that later grew to become PayPal.

Specialists have advised the Twitter change is as a lot about tying it to Musk’s private model as anything.

Learn extra:
Why rebranding Twitter will be an enormous challenge

Picture:
Elon Musk took over Twitter in October final 12 months

Speedy adjustments at HQ

The rebrand has not simply been mirrored on Twitter’s web site and app, but additionally at its San Francisco headquarters, the place Musk had the brand new brand beamed on to the constructing.

Employees had been seen eradicating the Twitter signal from exterior on Monday, however had been briefly held up by police.

Witnesses mentioned officers advised them Musk’s firm hadn’t acquired a allow for the crane to be on web site, however the delay was later put right down to a “misunderstanding”.

Native police advised The San Francisco Normal: “At roughly 12:39pm, officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the realm of tenth and Market Avenue concerning a report of a attainable unpermitted road closure.

“Officers had been in a position to decide that no crime was dedicated, and this incident was not a police matter.”

Contained in the constructing, remaining references to Twitter and its iconic brand have additionally reportedly been eliminated.

A statue of the blue hen was among the items put up for auction earlier this year as Musk seemed to chop prices, having already sacked thousands of staff.

On Monday, The New York Instances reported X logos had been projected within the constructing’s canteen, whereas convention rooms had been renamed to phrases with X in them – together with “eXposure” and “s3Xy”.

Musk, who’s 52, has a historical past of constructing jokes referencing internet memes about sex and drugs.

Twitter's new logo is seen projected on the corporate headquarters building in downtown San Francisco, California, U.S. July 23, 2023. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Picture:
Twitter’s new brand projected on the company headquarters

One other rival emerges?

As Twitter’s rebrand bought beneath method, TikTok revealed it had added the power for customers to publish textual content updates.

The Chinese language-owned app is greatest identified for short-form video, however has beforehand branched out into picture sharing.

The textual content choice offers folks “one other option to specific themselves”, the corporate mentioned.

It represents one more direct rival to X, which is already keeping off competitors from the likes of Meta’s Threads, which grew to become the fastest growing app in history earlier this month.

Some customers and advertisers have been trying elsewhere attributable to Musk’s many adjustments, which have included locking verification ticks behind a paywall, reinstating banned accounts resembling that of Andrew Tate, and applying reading limits.

His free stance on moderation has contributed to Twitter dropping virtually half of its promoting income, with the corporate unprofitable and in heavy debt.

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