Twitter revived, positions itself as X competitor
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Twitter has announced its return to the social networking scene, and this time the platform is not part of X but is instead positioning itself as a competitor.
It could be said that Twitter has come back to life, as the platform has been prepared by a group of people led by Stephen Coates, a former legal adviser to Twitter before it transformed into X.
Citing an Engadget report on Friday (28/8), Stephen introduced the social media platform through LinkedIn, and it is now accessible via the website Twitter.now.
According to him, this had been planned for a long time and was finally realised thanks to a start-up called Operation Bluebird.
When accessing the website, the new Twitter retains the blue colour of the original platform before it was acquired by Elon Musk and turned into X.
A bird logo is also visible, though the bird displayed differs from the old logo as it appears to have additional feathers.
“We have been waiting months to launch this product, and we are not going to wait any longer,” Stephen Coates told Ars Technica.
Operation Bluebird has repeatedly stated that the project is legal because Musk quickly changed Twitter’s name and logo to X after purchasing it in 2022.
Musk sued the group through a federal judge in Delaware, a state known for prioritising big business.
The case is still in proceedings, but District Court Judge Colm Connolly appears to have hinted that it will ultimately end favourably for Operation Bluebird.
He noted in a preliminary ruling in April that he had not “found that X has provided credible evidence of the use of ‘tweet’ or the bird logo.”
Recently, the group stated that the judge’s preliminary ruling had given them the green light. “In our opinion, X has relinquished its rights to the Twitter and tweet trademarks,” they said.
The new site clearly states that it is entirely separate from X, declaring in its branding that it is “not affiliated with X Corp.”
Stephen later reinforced that statement in a LinkedIn post, saying that “the public square has been reopened, and it is clearly not affiliated with X in any way. Not at all.”
The company also appears to be distancing itself from all modern social media applications.
To that end, there is an AI tool called Vera within the platform, which stands for veracity engine for real-time analysis.
This tool automatically fact-checks all posts so that people know whether they are getting angry about something that is entirely fabricated. However, the Vera model is still in its early stages and has many shortcomings that need to be addressed.
Because of this independent approach, the new Twitter actually requires interested users to pay.
Users need to pay at least 20 US dollars (around Rp355,000) to access the platform and hold the title of founder.
That fee already amounts to half the cost of a one-month X Premium+ subscription.
The new Twitter claims that the fee paid by users serves to “prevent bots from joining and remain independent” because “paid access proves that there is a real person behind the account”.
Nevertheless, the company also said it will “open access to more people at a later date.”