An American start-up wants to relaunch the American social network Twitter, three years after the name change decided by Elon Musk. Operation Bluebird thus wants to recreate an atmosphere of trust in the public agora. But Elon Musk strongly opposes this project.
Operation Bluebird – whose name refers to the blue bird, the logo of the old Twitter – filed a request to cancel the registration of X’s trademarks on the words “Twitter” and “tweet“.
The start-up hopes to rebuild the social network in a new form – although concrete information on this is scant. Already, 150,000 people have registered on the new twitter.new site to obtain an identifier.
It is in fact the changes in moderation that led many users to desert Twitter after the takeover of X in 2022 by Elon Musk.
“Irreparable harm”
Elon Musk opposes this return. He asked a judge to stop the project, saying Twitter never left. However, in mid-2023, just before the name change, he himself said “And soon we will say goodbye to the Twitter brand and, little by little, to all the birds”.
The owner of X believes that Operation Bluebird is trying to “shamelessly” appropriate a world-famous brand. It has also adapted the general conditions of its social network to remind that the word “Twitter” and its old logo are properties of X.
In the words of his complaint, he fears “irreparable harm” because many users continue to access X via the twitter.com domain. For Elon Musk, a resurrected Twitter would create confusion among users.
Increased competition
This Twitter revival project comes in a context of increased competition with other social networks like Blue Sky and Meta’s Thread. The official launch of the new platform is planned for the end of 2026.
To take over Twitter, Operation Bluebird will have to prove that X has “abandoned” the brand and for his part Elon Musk will have to show that no, he has not said goodbye to all the birds.
Mathilde Farine / juma
