Elon Musk takes over @X handle & offers previous owner merch As Twitter handle gets deactivated

Elon Musk dropped on users over the weekend that Twitter was going to be rebranded as X. In the transition, many users noted that the @X handle was already taken by someone.

The person that registered the @X username was Gene X. Hwang who signed up for the platform more than 16 years ago.

This week, Musk and X Corp. took over the @X handle and seemingly didn’t give Hwang a choice.

“[I] got an email basically saying they are taking it,” Hwang said in an e-mail exchange with Mashable.

Hwang had previously talked to the outlet who said they were awaiting Musk or X Corp. to contact him about his username. Hwang, who is a co-founder of Orange Photography, said the e-mail informing him he was losing his account came from the generic “support@twitter.com” address and not from anyone specifically working at the company.

Although many thought the user that had the @X handle would be getting a sweet deal in exchange, Hwang said they only offered “an alternative handle with the history of the @x account” as well as “some merch and to meet with management if I like.”

Hwang said he is most likely not taking the offer to meet up with X Corp. management but will continue to stay on the social media platform. His username for now is @x12345678998765 and he already made his first post since the transition.

“Alls well that ends well,” Hwang posted.



The @X handle has been taken over by Musk’s company and the @Twitter handle has been deactivated. A description on the latter profile reads, “This account is no longer active. Follow @x for updates.”