Yesterday, Twitter users were confused to find that the Twitter logo in the top left corner of the web app had been replaced by a doge.
Some users are reporting that the doge picture has been replaced by the regular Twitter logo again, but as of this writing, my own Twitter feed still has the iconic shiba inu where the little blue bird used to be.
At first, the assumption among many users was that the doge logo was some kind of April Fool’s joke. The main problem with that theory was that April Fool’s Day had already come and gone, with the doge appearing on April 3rd. However, some users speculated that there simply aren’t enough staff members left at Twitter to get the prank up and running on time.
Indeed, Musk himself bragged about the change in a tweet.
If correct, this theory points to the insularity with which Musk is now running one of the world’s most heavily populated social media sites. Does Musk think that everyone on Twitter, from activists in the Middle East to suburban moms in the U.S., knows or cares what the doge meme is? Musk is the living embodiment of that moment when someone makes an inside joke to the wrong crowd and is rewarded with a roomful of blank stares.
Throughout the day, though, some Twitter users came up with another theory: Elon Musk tried to get tweets about the new logo trending in order to direct searches for the word “doge” away from a lawsuit he’s embroiled in over the cryptocurrency dogecoin.
The racketeering lawsuit, which bubbled up in the news on March 31 when Musk’s lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the case, accuses Musk of running a pyramid scheme to support dogecoin. Dogecoin investors are seeking $258 billion in damages from Musk.
Shortly after news articles began appearing about the lawsuit, the doge logo appeared on Twitter.
It’s not totally clear why we’re all looking at a relatively obscure meme instead of a corporate logo when we log into Twitter. With Musk’s personality and legal troubles, though, the likely reason isn’t hard to piece together.
(featured image: Federico Moreno / Getty Images)
