It has been confirmed by the former owner of the @x Twitter handle that the company now known as X took over his account without giving him any prior notice or compensating him in any way.
Gene X Hwang, who owned the corporate photography and videography firm Orange Photography, was the previous owner of the handle. As a reflection of appreciation, the firm formerly known as Twitter sent Hwang a letter thanking him for his dedication and offering a tour of X’s headquarters.
Hwang was taken aback by the fact that the corporation had not gotten in touch with him over the @x account he owned but had set to private. On the other hand, he added that he would be willing to talk to the corporation about it if they were interested in purchasing the handle for themselves.
According to Hwang, X sent him a letter alerting him that the @x account is affiliated with X Corp. and that he will be given a new handle in the near future.
The business stated that all of his data, including the information regarding his followers and the people he followed, would be moved to his new account. “It would have been nice for them to compensate for it since it did have a lot of value to me, but things are what they are,” Hwang told TechCrunch.
“Maybe I should ask for the bird from the sign since they were dismantling that yesterday too,” he joked.
Starting on Sunday, Musk began tweeting hints about the renaming, with the first post reading, “soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.”
Musk explained Tuesday that X Corp bought Twitter to protect free expression and to speed up development of the X app, which he calls “the everything app.” This is more than just a firm changing its name; its operations remain unchanged.
As he said, “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth — like birds tweeting. ” However, “now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.”