Days after reporting that Twitter is now called X, the social network “closed” the account @Twitter as an official means of communication with the public. Now, all the information about news and the platform is disclosed on the @X. But even with the proposal to turn usernames into products, Elon Musk didn’t give a dime to the former owner of the @X.
As he explains in his bio, @Twitter is no longer an active account. To know the updates on the social network still known as Twitter, the user needs to follow the @X. On Sunday, somewhat by surprise, Elon Musk reported that the Twitter brand would give way to X. With that, the blue bird was SpaceX and the icon of the social network became an “X”.
Now, with the arrival of Twitter… From the official “Xis” of the @X (what a mess), the social network should accelerate its visual identity change. Stay tuned: you will soon no longer see “Tweet” and typing “twitter.com” may redirect you to a x.com.
Previous owner of the @X did not win anything to pass the arroba
Gene X. Hwang, the former owner of the @X account received nothing, not even a month’s subscription to Twitter Blue, by “losing” his username entirely. But it’s all right: in those Twitter terms that no one reads, it’s explained that no one has rights to usernames — a measure by the social network to avoid “” with brands and users on the platform.
As Hwang explained to Mashable, he received the email informing him that the platform would “take” the @X. On the bright side, the social network offered an account with the history of his old @X — which he had been using for 16 years. Yes, it wasn’t even a “right trade”, it was just “look, we took your arroba and put the history in another account”.
The other “compensations” offered to Hwang were: merchandising of the social network formerly known as Twitter and the “opportunity” to meet Twitter’s board if he wanted to — but Hwang has said he probably doesn’t want to do that.
Like (almost) everything in life, the “taking of the arroba” has a dose of irony. One of Musk’s (unfulfilled) ideas was to “auction” old, inactive arrobas to generate revenue.
But that’s it: whoever pays the band, chooses the music… And whoever pays the social network chooses the @, so much so that Elon Musk “took” the @e of an account that was suspended after being hacked. And Twitter’s policy authorized it.
