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Elon Musk’s blunder: Billionaire calls his social media platform Twitter instead of X
Elon Musk faced mockery for calling his rebranded social media platform Twitter instead of X
Elon Musk has become the subject of mockery after referring to his social media platform as Twitter instead of X. Despite the rebranding, users and even Musk himself continue to use the old name, raising questions about the success of the move.
The billionaire had acquired Twitter in a $44 billion deal in October 2022 and rebranded it to “X” only a few months later in a controversial move that was met largely with disapproval and displeasure at the time. The rebrand had wiped billions of dollars from the platform's market value, reports suggest.
Nearly one year later, the social media platform is still being called Twitter by most old-time users. Most news websites, when they refer to X, add a disclaimer in parentheses about how the network was “formerly called Twitter.” In common parlance, “tweeted” and “tweets” remain synonyms for posts on X. All this despite the fact that Elon Musk moved the website url from Twitter.com to X.com in May this year, has been pushing the X agenda with a vengeance and has even hosted polls on whether users prefer the old Twitter or the rebranded X.
However, the X owner also seems to forget that his website has been rebranded. In a post shared hours ago, Musk himself referred to the social media network as Twitter.
The billionaire CEO of Tesla was referring to Brazil’s recent ban on X when he tweeted a meme showing a man with wads of cash. “POV: VPN companies after Brazil banned Twitter,” read the caption.
Take a look at the post here:
The tweet, the horror
Social media users immediately latched onto Musk’s usage of Twitter instead of X. Many called it a telling blunder, while others referred to his decision as the world’s biggest rebranding failure.
(Also read: ‘Please, don’t take this historic moment for granted': Twitter CEO's message to employees on rebranding to 'X')
His post has racked up over 62 million views and thousands of comments trolling him. “The rebranding is going so well, even the CEO still calls it Twitter,” wrote one X user. Musk is no longer the CEO of the company, having relinquished the title to Linda Yaccarino months ago.
“They banned which app exactly??” another user asked sarcastically.
“You can tell the rebrand is going very well and definitely not an utter failure when the owner is still calling it Twitter over a year later after the change,” a person tweeted.
