Earlier this week, Elon Musk made just the latest in a string of baffling, poorly planned decisions since his overpriced purchase of Twitter last year—the bad decision that started it all. Despite Twitter being a massively recognizable brand well beyond the scope of its actual user base, Musk launched into a sudden rebrand of the platform simply as “X,” and it’s gone impressively badly, even by the standards Musk has set.
Police were called on Monday, July 24, to Twitter’s headquarters in San Fransisco as Elon Musk tried to start his Twitter rebrand physically … without permission.
A video from The Guardian shows workers removing letters spelling the brand’s name from the building and interacting with police. Authorities said that Musk had failed to communicate with the building’s owner or security over the letter removal, resulting in their arrival on the scene to stop “unauthorized work.” It caused disruption as the “boom lift” used to carry out the work took up most of the road, which caused traffic to back up.
In an email to San Francisco Standard, a spokesperson for the police department said that despite their investigation, they determined that no crime had been committed. “Officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure. Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that no crime was committed and this incident was not a police matter.”
Currently, the only letters that remain are “er” on the 10th Street side of the headquarters, while on the Market side, the social media’s former full name remains. Employees were apparently unaware that this reconstruction would be taking place and that the list just showed up and the workers began on the removal.
Photos obtained by the New York Times show that the names of conference rooms inside the building have been changed to reflect the name change. Rooms are now called things like “eXposure” and, for some reason, “s3xy,” which may yet come back to haunt Musk.
Tweeting what felt like a mildly threatening message on July 23, the out-of-touch billionaire himself wrote, “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
On the app, the current CEO, Linda Yaccarino, played into Musk’s delusions of grandeur, writing that there is “absolutely no limit to this transformation” and that X can deliver “everything.” She also said, “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.”
It certainly all sounds in line with Musk’s aspirations for an “everything app” and insistence that he wanted to buy Twitter to protect free speech as it becomes a pivotal part of how our society communicates, but we’ve all seen that his definition of free speech is hardly so noble in practice, and the results of this new venture isn’t likely to be any different.
(featured image: Chesnot/Getty Images)
