Twitter changes official handle to @X without compensation to owner

Twitter took over the @x official handle, without warning to the original owner of @x which had belonged to Gene X Hwang of the corporate photography and videography studio Orange Photography. The official owner wasn't financially compensated or warned before Twitter took over the name.

In a letter, Musk's company formerly known as Twitter, praised Hwang for his loyalty and offered him a selection of X merchandise and a tour of X’s HQ as compensation and a “reflection of our appreciation.”

Twitter's ambitious rebranding hasn't been going well and according to reports, Twitter hadn't secured the intellectual property rights to the “X” brand, especially since Microsoft, Meta and others have claims to various “X” trademarks.

The company also didn't receive approval from the city before they began removing the Twitter signage on the building, which compelled the police to halt the work. The Twitter website has yet to be updated and still displays the “search Twitter” or “Tweet” buttons, besides the obvious X logo change.

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The owner of @X handle, Hwang, said the letter sent to him by X stated that the @x account is affiliated with X Corp., so he would be assigned a new handle.

“It would have been nice for them to compensate for it since it did have a lot of value to me, but things are what they are," he told Tech Crunch.