A social media start-up is cheekily trying to steal back and revive the original Twitter brand, sparking a legal battle with Elon Musk’s X. What will come of this ambitious attempt to reclaim the "public square" in the shadow of X? — Photo: Monika Skolimowska/dpa
SAN JOSE: "We are bringing it back – this time with trust," reads a new Twitter website, promising to restore the platform once called the "public square" and that has since been rebranded as the "free speech" platform called X.
In a December filing with the US Patent and Trademark Office, US start-up Operation Bluebird argues that tech billionaire Elon Musk and his social media platform X have abandoned the Twitter brand and the trademark should be cancelled.
However, X Corp is already suing the start-up over its attempt to claim the retired Twitter name and its iconic blue bird logo, saying the start-up is "brazenly attempting to steal the world-famous TWITTER brand."
"Bluebird’s plan to 'bring back' and 'reclaim Twitter' fails to account for one major flaw: the TWITTER brand is alive and well, owned by X Corp, and is not ripe for the picking," the legal response from X reads.
For now, the Twitter revival website is still active and allowing users to request their old handles, and as of mid-December, the website counted some 146,000 handles requested.
However it's unclear if the revival of Twitter is truly what is sought by the two people heading the campaign, two attorneys, one of whom previously specialised in trademarks at Twitter.
Industry media have speculated the main goal of Operation Bluebird may be only to acquire the high-value trademark of Twitter.
X, seeking to patch any trademark-shaped holes in its terms of service, has since updated its small print to clarify that both X and Twitter may not be used "without our express written consent."
Musk bought Twitter for about US$44bil (RM177.7bil) around three years ago and later rebranded it as X, removing references to Twitter across the platform. Operation Bluebird sees this as evidence that X does not intend to use the old name and logo and plans to use them for a new site, Twitter.new.
X countered that redesigning the website and app does not constitute abandoning the Twitter trademark. The company noted users still refer to posts as "tweets" and continue using the Twitter name. Meanwhile, users can claim profile names on Twitter.new, with more than 145,000 names already requested, according to the website.
Last year was marked by a steady exodus from X, as some major accounts like The Guardian called it a "toxic media platform" in the wake of its transformation under the ownership of tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Market researchers reported that the platform's user numbers were falling and that major advertisers were pulling out. User numbers on rival platforms meanwhile surged following Musk's vocal support and financial backing of Donald Trump's presidential election campaign in the United States.
Many leaving the platform complained of a perceived right-wing shift and an increase in hate-filled posts on the platform.
Musk has meanwhile angered some of X's user base by dismantling previous measures against misinformation and conspiracy theories, while research suggests hate speech has flourished under the platform's new leadership. X rejects this.
Threads, Bluesky and Mastodon – currently the largest platforms aiming to be the next generation of what Twitter once was – benefited most from the frustration of some users at the transition from Twitter to X.
The strongest competition to date has been the rival service Threads from the Facebook group Meta, which hit 175 million monthly active users in the year since it launched. Since the takeover, X has not provided any regular information on user numbers.
Bluesky is designed as a decentralised alternative to X – a platform on which many interconnected online networks can exist. The project was launched in 2019 by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey when he was still head of the world's most used short messaging service.
The developers of Operation Bluebird appear to share this frustration and suggest that X tried to fix Twitter's problems, but instead "burned it all down."
Unlike the battle between X and rival platforms like Threads and Bluesky, the latest obstacle for X looks set to be decided not by users, but by the courts. – dpa
