Elon Musk is killing all birds with one 'X' shaped stone
Elon Musk is once again making a useless change, and Twitter will no longer be known by its alias, "The Bird App."
Musk announced that the app would change its brand's iconic logo to an 'X' in a series of tweets fashioned with his classic cryptic-but-still-lame vibe, including one tweet that just showed off a shiny X. Eventually, he tweeted that "soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds." He followed that up with his vision for the X.
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This isn't a huge surprise, as Musk has made sillier and more damaging changes to Twitter and he is obsessed with the letter X. He changed the name of Twitter's parent company to X Corp. He started launched an AI startup called xAI. He said buying Twitter would be part of his team to build "X, the everything app." There is a Tesla Model X car, and he famously named one of his children X AE A-XII.
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But it is kind of a wild thing to do. The bird is one of the most recognizable parts of the app. The word "tweet" doesn't make sense without the bird; the egg profile photos are bizarre without it; the bird is integral to the name Twitter itself. It's arguably one of the biggest marketing decisions he's made since buying the platform for $44 billion last year — according to Fidelity, Twitter is now worth one-third what Musk paid.
While most Twitter users don't appear angry at the decision, many have reacted with a variety of "WTF is this?" and "Why?" responses.
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The change could go into effect as soon as Monday, but, as with all of Musk's seemingly random decisions, don't hold your breath.
Christianna Silva is a senior culture reporter covering social platforms and the creator economy, with a focus on the intersection of social media, politics, and the economic systems that govern us. Since joining Mashable in 2021, they have reported extensively on meme creators, content moderation, and the nature of online creation under capitalism.
Before joining Mashable, they worked as an editor at NPR and MTV News, a reporter at Teen Vogue and VICE News, and as a stablehand at a mini-horse farm. You can follow her on Bluesky @christiannaj.bsky.social and Instagram @christianna_j.
