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In 2022, Elon Musk agreed to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, and after spending months doing everything in his power to get out of the legally-binding contract he signed, he became the reluctant new owner of the company after the sale was finalized in October.
Since then, the divisive billionaire has rolled out a number of controversial changes seemingly designed to ruin the website, including a disastrous overhaul of its verification system, a short-lived banned on links to rival social media platforms, and the “Rate Limit Exceeded” debacle that inspired Meta to roll out a competitor that hasn’t been able to take advantage of Twitter’s woes.
Over the weekend, we were treated to what is arguably the most drastic development to unfold during Musk’s reign, as he (along with CEO Linda Yaccarino) announced the company would be rebranding as “X” while outlining what seems to be a fairly ill-considered vision for the future of the brand.
X is the future state of unlimited interactivity β centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking β creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways weβre just beginning to imagine.
— Linda Yaccarino (@lindayaX) July 23, 2023
And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
On Sunday, Musk teased the pending relaunch by promising to unveil the new logo if he deemed it “good enough,” and it didn’t take long for the world to be introduced to the “X” that soon replaced all of Twitter’s avian imagery.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023
Now, you might think the X in question was the end product of a lengthy process made possible by the consultants, focus groups, and graphic designers that helped develop its new identity, but it didn’t take long for people to discover the logo was simply a generic, preexisting Unicode character.
Elon "Graphic Design Is My Passion" Musk's logo for "X" is literally just Unicode Character βπβ (U+1D54F).https://t.co/cT01vRCuWG pic.twitter.com/0zukeVUWTN
— Eliot Higgins (@EliotHiggins) July 24, 2023
Plenty of users quickly pointed out the π is in the public domain, and while Musk probably saved some money by going that particular route, it also means The Company Formerly Known As Twitter doesn’t have the exclusive rights to use it nor any legal options to protect the brand it’s now associating with the character.
https://twitter.com/IanColdwater/status/1683437875369574402
https://twitter.com/kay_c1773/status/1683477983800053761