Elon Musk Offers Merchandise in Exchange for @X Twitter Handle Following Rebranding

Since its rebranding, X (previously known as Twitter) has been consistently embroiled in fresh controversies. Following reports of authorities temporarily halting the removal of the Twitter logo from their San Francisco headquarters, a new controversy has now emerged surrounding the platform owned by Elon Musk. A user, who had the highly sought-after @x username, claims that the company took it away from him and only offered some merchandise, a company tour, and a meeting with management as compensation.

According to a Telegraph report, the account belonged to Gene X Hwang, a San Francisco-based photographer who joined the social media site in 2007 and was one of the first users. Ever since he Registered on the platform, he has kept his username @X, which is now also the name of the company. On Tuesday evening, he received an email saying that the handle was taken. Just hours later, the handle became the new official communication account on the platform, while the previously active Twitter support account was removed.

Hwang’s account has been set to private, so we couldn’t independently verify the tweets he made. However, the Telegraph reported that he was willing to entertain the idea of selling his username. One-letter usernames are X’s most requested handles. In the past, they have sold for thousands of dollars. For example, the report mentions that a user with the @n handle said he was offered $50,000 to sell his account.

However, this was not the case for Hwang. “They just basically took it – kind of like I thought might happen… They sent an email saying it’s basically ‘x’s’ property… I think I’d sell if I was approached. Depends on the offer, I guess.” he said. Although Hwang was offered X products and a visit to the company’s headquarters and a meeting with management, no financial incentives were given.

The original owner of @X gets a new account

Despite the fact that Hwang lost a valuable account, he was able to create a new account and keep all the information from his previous account on his new account, as well as all his followers. Before the company renamed itself, Hwang had about 30,000 followers. After the event, however, his follower count is around 67,000. He tweeted from his new account @x12345678998765 and said, “All’s well that ends well.”