The world's smartest and most stable businessman Elon Musk has brought the artist formerly known as Twitter into sharp disrepute from both the neighbors of its HQ and the city of San Francisco after installing a massive strobe light in the shape of an X on the roof to celebrate the company's new branding.
The social media outlet, which has famously been strapped for cash recently (who can imagine why?), has changed its name to X in a bizarre rebranding exercise that only the Tesla and Space X mogul could have thought up. After announcing that Twitter was changing its name to X last week, users spent days still able to "tweet", logging in to the "Twitter" app, and seeing the Twitter logo on its homepage.
Now, Twitter is very much X, and has even managed to successfully change its name as such on the iOS App Store despite Apple's band on one-character app names, and the company has erected a giant strobe light on the roof to celebrate. Now, Twitter's neighbors are furious, and the city of San Francisco isn't best pleased either.
Shout out to my X
"I would be f*****g LIVID. Imagine this f*****g X sign right across from your bedroom," quipped one user who tweeted a video of the outrageously bright sign that now adorns the roof of X HQ, lighting up the entire building opposite like the Death Star.
I would be fucking LIVID. Imagine this fucking X sign right across from your bedroom. #x #twitter pic.twitter.com/FH4nqcS8oyJuly 29, 2023
San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection went to the headquarters on Friday night to demand answers, reports The New York Times, but the offending strobe light was quite operational when the inspector arrived.
According to NYT, Patrick Hannan, a spokesman for the department, stated that "a building permit is required to make sure the sign is structurally sound and installed safely,“ and that "planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign.”
The company has been notified that it is in violation of city code and has been asked to give access to the roof for an inspection. For its part, Twitter has told the city that it was a "temporary lighted sign for an event", but denied a second attempt by inspectors to access the roof on Saturday.
"This whole Twitter rebranding is going from nonsensical, to stupid, to downright insane," said one angry user. "This is the new Twitter, or X, or whatever it's called now, sign seen from an apartment near the HQ. Are you kidding me? This is absurd and I'm sure it's illegal."
