Elon Musk has done it again, if by “it” you mean “ruined a perfectly good thing.” Musk has put yet another nail in Twitter’s rotting coffin by renaming the whole platform “X” and getting rid of the blue bird logo. You know, the same logo that’s represented the company since forever and gives it the sort of brand recognition most companies only dream of. Great business decision there, Elon!
New company CEO Linda Yaccarino posted on Twitter—sorry, “X” (ugh)—to drop some meaningless business-speak about what the change means:
It’s an exceptionally rare thing – in life or in business – that you get a second chance to make another big impression. Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square.
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we’re just beginning to imagine.
For years, fans and critics alike have pushed Twitter to dream bigger, to innovate faster, and to fulfill our great potential. X will do that and more. We’ve already started to see X take shape over the past 8 months through our rapid feature launches, but we’re just getting started.
There’s absolutely no limit to this transformation. X will be the platform that can deliver, well….everything. @elonmusk and I are looking forward to working with our teams and every single one of our partners to bring X to the world.
Elon himself has also floated in like a bad smell to inform everyone that Tweets will now be called “Xs,” which sounds absolutely ridiculous and is. Oh, and he’s updated his profile to include a link to “X.com.” I did my duty and clicked on it, only to be directed to the words, “x.com is parked free, courtesy of GoDaddy.com.” Meanwhile, the official Twitter account is still called @twitter and not @x because someone else already has an account called @x. Outstanding work there, Elon and co.
It probably goes without saying that Twitter users, who I will not be calling “X users” even if I had a gun to my head, are having a field day with this.
Other media companies have also sensed an opportunity and jumped on the meme.
Why is Twitter called ‘X’ now?
Tweetstorms like this are always fun, but behind the jokes, there’s a lot of real anger. Elon Musk, a man so pathetic he once falsely accused a man of pedophilia just to massage his own ego, bought a site beloved (or at least tolerated) by millions and used it to usher in racism, transphobia, and outright fascism. Twitter is a shadow of what it used to be, all because of him.
Elon choosing “X” as the name for this, let’s call it an “endeavor” makes very little sense on the surface. “X” is associated with, y’know, X-rated things. “I’m watching X videos” has a very different vibe to “I’m watching Twitter videos.” But when you learn Elon co-founded the original X.com, which eventually became PayPal, and that Musk was voted out as CEO while he was on honeymoon with his first wife, it starts to fall into place.
Yeah, Musk is changing the name because he’s rich and he can and he wants us all to know how successful he is. Thanks, Elon. You’re a real piece of X.
(featured image: NBC)
Published: Jul 24, 2023 10:47 am