The ‘X’ Logo Was Removed From Twitter Headquarters After Permit Issue

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk purchased Twitter in the fall of 2022. Most recently, the tech tycoon stepped into a role as CTO, handing over the CEO reigns to Linda Yaccharino, formerly of NBCUniversal. Amid Yaccharino’s recent appointment, the company announced an “X” rebrand. The platform’s iconic blue bird logo is slowly being phased out and replaced with a white letter x.

The new Twitter X logo at the company’s headquarters in San Francisco, California, US, on Saturday, July 29, 2023. Elon Musk has changed Twitter Inc.’s logo, replacing its signature blue bird with a stylized X as part of the billionaire’s vision of transforming the 17-year-old service into an everything app. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The rebrand comes as a part of an overall restructuring of what the company offers. Twitter, founded in 2006, has long been a text-based social media platform with support for images and videos. With ‘X’, both Musk and Yaccharino claim that the newer version of the platform will support new Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies.

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.

— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 23, 2023

To announce the rebrand, Musk shared images of a large “X” projected on Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, California.

Our headquarters tonight pic.twitter.com/GO6yY8R7fO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 24, 2023

The large projector machinery, along with a large “X” marquee, have now been abruptly removed by the city’s local police force.

The X sign has been removed from X headquarters in San Francisco. pic.twitter.com/b1AUHUkzVS

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) July 31, 2023

Efforts to remove it began last week, when the city attempted to revoke it due to a missing permit needed for public projections. The Department of Building Inspection and City Planning received 24 complaints about it, according to a Bloomberg report.

Social Media Reactions

While some choose to simply acknowledge the humorous setback in the major platform’s rebrand, others feel that it could mark a walk back in rebranding. The platform continues to hemorrhage users since Musk’s purchase.

Hopefully the X is removed from Twitter next

— steven ❀ (@arianaunext) July 31, 2023

Others remarked on how trivial the situation was as a whole.

so many other things to focus on pic.twitter.com/exjCtALTwU

— jordan ✮ (@jordanmowatt1) July 31, 2023

Musk’s team implemented a series of controversial policies since his fall 2022 takeover. The platform notably rolled back the legacy verification process, forcing users to subscribe to Twitter Blue in order to obtain a verified account. The widespread availability of verification to the general public sparked concerns about misinformation spreading, as verified accounts were previously only bestowed to journalists, politicians, and celebrities.

This caused a mass exodus from the platform. Journalists flocked to the more press-friendly Mastodon, while Meta released a competitor app called Threads. In the meantime, Twitter’s founder, Jack Dorsey, has his own competitor in the works, Bluesky. The latter is yet to be released to the public.

In wake of the “X” rebrand, Musk announced that the platform has reformatted “retweets” into “reposts”.

Retweet is now “Repost”

What are your thoughts? pic.twitter.com/8567t9YE6M

— Elon Musk (Parody) (@ElonMuskAOC) July 31, 2023

Musk has not commented further on the removal of the ‘X’ logo from the company’s headquarters. The timeline of the platform’s AI rollout is unclear at this time.