Twitter seizes @x handle without warning or paying owner; X domain blocked in Indonesia [details]

As Twitter is being rebranded as ‘X’, the corporate has taken over the @x handle on the platform without warning or compensating its authentic proprietor.

The proprietor of the @x Twitter handle confirmed that the corporate took over the account, telling him the handle is the property of X, experiences TechCrunch, citing sources.

The account had beforehand belonged to Gene X Hwang of the company images and videography studio Orange Photography.

In a letter, the corporate thanked Hwang for his loyalty, provided him a number of X merchandise and in addition prolonged an invite to go to X’s headquarters, as a “reflection of our appreciation”.

Hwang was shocked the corporate hadn’t contacted him in regards to the @x account he owned and had put it non-public.

However, he said that he could be open to a dialog with the corporate in the event that they desired the handle for themselves.

Hwang mentioned that X gave him a letter informing him that the @x account is linked to X Corp. and that he can be given a brand new handle.

According to the corporate, all of his knowledge, together with his followers and following knowledge, could be transferred to his new account.

“It would have been good for them to compensate for it because it did have a number of worth to me, however issues are what they’re,” Hwang informed TechCrunch.

“Maybe I ought to ask for the chook from the signal since they have been dismantling that yesterday too,” he joked.

Musk had began hinting on the rebranding on Sunday with a collection of tweets, beginning with one which mentioned, “quickly we will bid adieu to the Twitter model and, progressively, all of the birds.”

Musk on Tuesday clarified, “Twitter was acquired by X Corp each to make sure freedom of speech and as an accelerant for X, the the whole lot app. This shouldn’t be merely an organization renaming itself, however doing the identical factor.”

“The Twitter identify made sense when it was simply 140 character messages going backwards and forwards — like birds tweeting — however now you possibly can put up virtually something, together with a number of hours of video,” he added.

Indonesia blocks Musk’s ‘X’ domain over playing, porn historical past

Elon Musk’s rebranding of Twitteras ‘X’ has resulted in the microblogging platform being briefly blocked in Indonesia, owing to the nation’s strict legal guidelines prohibiting on-line pornography and playing.

According to Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics, the domain had beforehand been utilized by websites that didn’t adhere to the nation’s strict legal guidelines in opposition to “damaging” content material equivalent to pornography and playing, experiences Al Jazeera.

Director General of Information and Public Communication on the ministry, Usman Kansong, said that the federal government has been in contact with X to realize readability on the character of the web site.

“Earlier immediately, we spoke with representatives from Twitter and they’ll ship a letter to us to say that X.com can be utilized by Twitter,” Kansong was quoted as saying.

Due to the current transfer, Indonesians are presently unable to entry the platform, which is alleged to have roughly 24 million customers in a inhabitants of 270 million individuals, the report mentioned.

In 2022, Indonesian authorities threatened to dam web sites equivalent to Netflix, Google, Instagram, and Facebook if they didn’t take away “content material deemed illegal, or that disturbs public order”. Netflix and TikTok have been beforehand banned in the nation, in 2016 and 2018, for “inappropriate content material”.

Musk introduced the sudden change as half of a bigger plan to rework Twitter right into a “tremendous app” just like China’s WeChat. In concept, X can be utilized for funds, messaging, and different non-social duties. Meanwhile, Musk has had an extended historical past with the letter and model “X”. The most well-known instance is SpaceX, one other firm in which he serves as CEO. Then there’s xAI, Musk’s AI-focused enterprise, and X Corp, his company shell agency. He even named his son “X Æ A-Xii”. Musk purchased again the X.com domain in 2017 after being the unique proprietor since 1999.

(With inputs from IANS)