On Monday, Elon Musk, the guy who spent way too much money to buy Twitter, rebranded the entire platform as "X," tossing aside almost two decades of branding (the bird is gone, too) for something darker, less friendly, and a lot less specific. Musk says he wants Twitter to be an "everything" app, but you know what they say about being a jack of all trades. You already know this is a massive mistake. But just so we’re all on the same page, we’ve laid out six reasons.
6. X Is Still Associated With Porn
Sure, you have to add another two XXs to really get at that, but before there was NC-17, an X rating for movies meant no one underage admitted. Don't make what used to be Twitter dirtier than it already is.
5. We Already Have Enough Pop-Culture Xs
We've already had a good horror movie called X, a not-so-good action movie called XXX (the one with Vin Diesel) and we have Lil Nas X and XXXTentation and Xzhibit and the late DMX. We're good with Xs, we don't need another one.
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4. You're Not a Pirate, Elon
Save X for maps in your billionaires' treasure hunt weekend.
3. The Brand Was Already Strong
Say what you will about Twitter (and we've said plenty), but the problem with it was not its logo, its name, or its light blue colors and symbols like the iconic Fail Whale. Twitter was singular in its name and even people who hate it know exactly what it is. Replacing it with X just adds confusion.
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2. Musk Has Tried This Before
Rather than thinking about what's good for Twitter, Musk is catering to his own obsession with the letter X, as detailed in the New York Times. He's had a boner for X for decades, having co-founded an online bank called x.com way back in 1999. He uses X to refer to his first kid with Grimes. In 2017, he bought back the X.com domain that was owned by PayPal. It's not a new idea; he's been planning this a while.
1. X Is a Variable
Nobody wants to think about math when they get on social media, but this reminds us that in algebra, X doesn't mean a damn thing until you define it. And we don't have faith that Elon can do that.