Photo from aljazeera.com

On Monday, July 24th, 2023, history was altered when a single bird left the nest. After 17 years of the app being called Twitter, Elon Musk decided to rebrand to “X”. With a 24 hours notice prior to the transformation, the new logo and branding had gone into effect. Since Musk gave little warning to this, it took the world by much surprise. 

Some people saw the change right away, but others did not even notice until a few weeks later.

“I didn’t even notice until two weeks ago when I heard about the whole situation from a TikTok and decided to open the app. That’s when I saw the new app icon,” junior Carson Dooley said. 

Musk says that the modification was due to the new vision he has for the app to become an “everything app”, and the name “X” would fit this fresh direction. Others believed that there were numerous reasons he decided to redesign the app.

“I think he changed it because Twitter started to have a negative notion about it, especially with all the protests and politics on the app,” junior Brooke Lynd said.

There was much confusion and frustration with the new addition because some people felt like it was unnecessary. Others did not really have a strong opinion on it and were just upset about the loss of the iconic blue bird.

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“I don’t like it. It’s confusing and it looks like an intellectual or very sophisticated app now. It feels like I’m about to do some math or stock calculations,” junior Lenna Kikuma said.

As well as the change with the online logo, Musk made the strange decision to have a large luminous sign of the new “X” logo posted on top of his building in San Francisco, California. This caused a lot of controversy due to the fact that apartment complexes are placed directly across from the blinding light. Not only does the sign glow brightly at night but it also flashes every 10-20 seconds, which can put people with conditions like epilepsy at high risk, and the issues do not just stop in the United States.

A 2000 Japanese rock band has minor inconvenience with Twitter being called “X” due to the fact that their name is “XJapan”. This is a problem since the rebranded name for Twitter in Japan is now “X Japan”. The band leader, Yoshiki, spoke out about the situation.

“I think it’s (referring to “X Japan”) taken already,” Yoshiki said.“First of all, I respect Elon Musk. I think he is very innovative and inspirational. [But] I named the band “X” decades ago in Japan.”

However, the band does not  seem to want to take any action against Musk’s decision. 

“At the same time, I don’t think this is something people should fight about–let’s make something positive out of this.” Yoshiki said.

This has caused Japan to wait in rebranding Twitter to “X” due to copyright reasons.  Considering the legal trouble with the band and the negative reactions from fans, Musk has faced backlash as he advances the app.