New Delhi: A new platform mimicking Twitter has raised eyebrows across the internet. The startup behind it has a former X staffer on its team. The platform is designed to look like X and bears the app’s former name.
Operation Bluebird is a Virginia-based startup co-founded by Stephen Coates, a former Associate Director of Trademarks at Twitter, who left the company in 2022 when billionaire Elon Musk took over. The startup launched ‘Twitter.now’ this week.
The launch was followed by an announcement by Coates on LinkedIn.
“Get over your X. The bird is back,” he wrote Wednesday.
In his post, Coates differentiated between X and his new platform.
“Twitter.now is not an attempt to recreate the old platform. We are building a different service, with trust signals that provide context for what users see and tools that allow people—not an opaque algorithm—to decide how much credibility and noise reach their feeds. Our governing principle is simple: freedom of speech, not freedom of reach,” the post reads.
It has over 200 comments, with social media users intrigued by the sight of a former Twitter staffer taking on Musk.
Before this new Twitter opens up for “the public”, it is inviting people to buy a ‘Funder’ or ‘Fighter’ access. The former costs $20, while the latter is priced at $40.
“Never thought I would pay for social media but this is a fight I’m willing to join,” read a comment by Karen Rolland. Another comment by Deeps Ramanathan read: “Stephen, thanks for driving this effort to bring the bird back. We need what you are building.”
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A petition to cancel X’s trademark on ‘Twitter’
Soon after Musk took over X, he wrote a tweet bidding farewell to erstwhile Twitter and sacked the top executives.
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” the tweet read.
Months later, in July 2023, the bird logo was replaced by ‘X’ and the domain switched from twitter.com to x.com. Later, Musk launched the blue tick feature with a premium service. X has since been accused of hosting illegal content, deepfakes, and state-backed interference.
Last year in December, the startup Operation Bluebird came in the news for speaking about its intent to relaunch Twitter. It is said to have filed a formal petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office, asking to cancel X Corporation’s trademarks of the words “Twitter” and “tweet”.
“The TWITTER and TWEET brands have been eradicated from X Corp.’s products, services, marketing, effectively abandoning the storied brand, with no intention to resume use of the mark,” the petition stated. “The TWITTER bird was grounded.”
Now, the startup has launched a platform identical to the erstwhile Twitter app.
“The public square is open again, and definitely not affiliated with X in any way. Whatsoever,” Coates wrote.
(Edited by Prasanna Bachchhav)