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It’s been less than a year since Elon Musk became the begrudging new owner of Twitter following a lengthy legal battle where he was unable to wriggle his way out of the ironclad contract where he agreed to spend $44 billion to acquire the social media platform.
Since then, he’s rolled out a number of changes that have left plenty to be desired among a userbase that’s become increasingly frustrated with a billionaire who’s seemingly failed to grasp what makes Twitter appealing in the first place.
Earlier this week, we were treated to the most drastic overhaul to date when Musk announced he was rebranding Twitter as “X” while teasing his vision to transform it into an “everything app,” an ambitious experiment that seems destined to fail but is nonetheless in the works.
The pivot was subjected to plenty of mockery thanks to the uninspired logo that replaced Twitter’s signature bird, and it seems like there’s a very solid chance it won’t be called “X” for very long when you consider Meta—easily its biggest competitor—appears to own the trademark Musk would theoretically need to acquire to firm up his position.
According to Al Jazeera, the rebrand also had some unintended consequences in Indonesia, which wasted no time preventing people within its borders from accessing the website after X was officially introduced to the world.
Why was that? Well, it turns out the country’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics has concerns about the meaning of X, a letter that’s associated with a number of, um, adult websites that are banned in the country thanks to laws against content it views as “negative” (which also extends other “immoral” activities like gambling).
The outlet states officials have blocked access to Twitter/X until the company clarifies what it intends to do with the new domain, and it appears it will remain inaccessible until the government receives a letter that firmly states the platform has no intention to harness it for supposedly “negative” means.