X Took Over The '@X' Handle, And The '@Music' Handle, And Troll Took Over Its CEO's Handle

Twitter was once a peaceful place where famous and influential people gather in a massive townhall where everyone has the right to tweet and speak.

But following Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, chaos emerged from his numerous tweaks and changes. The most notable, should be the rebranding of Twitter to X.

What this means, the company has lots to do.

Besides dealing with the legal things, the company also has to ensure that it's social media handle represents its new brand.

And to do this, the company deliberately 'stole' someone else's handle.

As soon as Musk rebranded Twitter, a Twitter user who goes by the name Gene X Hwang knew that his days at the platform is coming to an end.

This is because he is the rightful owner of the @x handle. It was him, who registered the name first in 2007, and he has been maintaining it since.

"Elon had been kind of tweeting about X previously," Hwang said. "So I kind of knew, you know, I had an inkling that this was going to happen. I didn't really know when."

In real life, Hwang was competing in a pinball tournament in Canada. And upon returning home, he was met with possibly one of the biggest (and anticipated) shock of his life, when X finally claim the handle.

"So when I landed and fired up my phone, I just got all these messages and I was like: 'What is what is going on?'"

Hwang received an email from the company, explaining that his account data would be preserved, and he'd get a new handle.

To compensate, the company offered Hwang free merchandise, a tour of its offices and a meeting with company management.

Hwang's account takeover was the first casualty that happened due to the chaos Musk made following his takeover.

Since rebranding to X, the company started to ditch every single 'Larry Bird' influence it had, and began removing instances of Twitter's iconic blue bird logo.

The company replaced everything with the letter 'X', the letter Musk has a personal attachment with.

The rebrand is the company's next step in creating what Musk has called "the everything app."

With Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino, the company envision the platform becoming a U.S. parallel to WeChat, which is a hub for communication, banking and commerce that's become a part of everyday life in China.

Hwang is among those who have been looking for Twitter alternatives. And because of his account takeover, he is really considering leaving Twitter, despite still retaining his patience.

"I've been checking out, you know, other options like Threads and Mastodon and Bluesky," he said. "I'm still on Twitter for now, but ... it's changed a lot. So we'll see how much longer I'm on there."

The chaos didn't stop there, because the gripes continue.

After abruptly claiming the @x handle, the next thing the company did, was taking over the @music handle.

Jeremy Vaught, who ran the account through the handle, had around 500,000 followers.

In a tweet, he revealed that the company had seized the handle and will be using it for its own business purposes.

Vaught tweeted a letter from the social media site’s management saying that the company is replacing his 16-year-old account handle with a new one, offering handles like @musicfan, @music123, or @musicmusic.

"The user handle associated with the account @Music will be affiliated with X Corp," the company said.

"We appreciate your loyalty and want to minimize any inconvenience this may cause," the email stated. "At this time we will be changing this handle to @musicfan."

Vaught, who created the account first, said that he is "super pissed."

"16 years ago, I created @music and have been running it ever since," he wrote. "Just now, Twitter / X just ripped it away."

What's worth noting, Vaught said that the alternatives X offered were actually owned by someone else.

"So if I choose one, I'll be complicit in stealing more accounts," he said.

And if those weren't enough, X's CEO also got her handle stolen.

CEO Linda Yaccarino, who X owner Elon Musk appointed in May 2023, announced that she had changed her username from @lindayaccs to @lindayaX.

She did this to show the public that she's a supporter of the rebrand.

But much sooner than a bit later, Yaccarino's former handle was picked up by an online troll who changed their display picture to Yaccarino's current display picture and began posting jokes.

The troll account is mostly the same as Yaccarino's, except it features the words "parody" in the username, a rule on X that must be followed, per the social media platforms guidelines.

"Hello fellow Reptilians!" said the account.

"Let's revert back to Twitter! Who's with me?"

Twitter has gone through a number of changes since Musk bought the platform, and its rapid pace of changes pose to be difficult for some people to keep up with, including by the company and its employees.

From slashing the company’s headcount and installing controversial previously banned users, Musk has then rebranded the platform to X, which has created even more chaos than ever before.

Read: Elon Musk's Twitter Extreme Cost Cutting: Rent Not Paid, No Kitchen, No Toilet Rolls, And No 'Unwanted' Things