Elon Musk’s plans to rebrand Twitter faced a substantial snag when the removal the company’s former name from its San Francisco headquarters was stopped by police on Monday.
The stoppage was due to “unauthorized work” on the part of the company, according to an alert sent by the local police department. The social media company failed to alert security or the building’s owner about the construction, which led to the initial call. It was later concluded that no crime had been committed.
Workers were able to remove the first six letters of the original “@twitter” logo. As it stands, the X building — formerly known as Twitter’s headquarters — only has the “er” remaining.
Users of the site were quick to call attention to the gaffe. The lingering “er” has been called “a perfect allegory for Elon’s management skills” and a funny joke.
On Monday, Musk officially rebranded his social media company as X. In this new iteration, the company will join Musk’s X-based company, SpaceX, and the iconic Twitter birds will be eliminated. “Everyone should be proud of the pace of innovation over the last nine months — from long-form content, to creator monetization, and tremendous advancements in brand safety protections,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said in an internal note seen by TheWrap.
The change has been largely mocked online, with users doing everything from comparing Musk to Superman villain Lex Luther to learning the hard way that the company’s recently rebranded XVideos are not safe for work.
It also continues a baffling string of decisions that started when Musk acquired the social media site in late 2022. Under Musk, the site has implemented several criticized practices such as an $8 a month blue check system; removing the blue checkmark status for non-paying customers, making it difficult to determine which accounts are official or not; lifted the ban on controversial figures like Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson and Kanye West; removing the ability to search posts without an account; and adding a temporary limit on how many posts unverified users could see in a day.
