If you happen to have registered a Twitter name that someone else felt they needed or wanted, the coveted handle usually would have a monetary value. The same is true of website URLs. If someone happened to have “the latest thing”.com, the latest thing company would compensate them. But Elon Musk doesn’t play that way.
Twitter, now renamed X, has appropriated the account @X without paying any remuneration to its former owner.
This week, the corporation emailed the handle’s current owner, Gene X. Hwang, to let him know they would take over the account. Even though Mr. Hwang created the tag before Twitter’s renaming, the message informed him that it was associated with X Corp. and would be appropriated by the newly branded firm.
The email said that Mr. Hwang’s information would be moved to whatever inactive account he chose. He was also allowed to see X’s headquarters and peruse a selection of X-related products. His new Twitter account is @X123456788765 as of Thursday.
X is not forced to spend the thousands of dollars often required to get a high-value handle.
Mr. Hwang, in an interview with Tech Crunch, said the handle had value to him, and it would have been nice if they paid him for it.
Hwang sarcastically said that since Musk was taking down the old Twitter sign, he should have asked for the bird.
Some would say that Hwang already “got the bird.”
Even while it’s still named twitter.com and users are encouraged to “tweet,” the site’s logo has been updated to a stylish X. However, Twitter did not protect its intellectual property about X and must now compete with Meta and Facebook for ownership of a number of trademarks pertaining to X.
Last week, police prevented Twitter from destroying its massive bird statue in front of its San Francisco offices because the firm had not first obtained the necessary permits from the city.
