Elon Musk’s brand shift from Twitter to “X” hit a brief snag at the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Monday after local police briefly stopped a crew from taking down the sign displaying the old name.
The well-known Twitter sign was being removed on Monday afternoon after Musk abruptly announced he was ditching the blue bird logo in favor of a black-and-white “X” logo.
Workers managed to remove all but a few letters from the signage before San Francisco police officers halted work, according to multiple reports.
The work stoppage was later revealed to be a misunderstanding. Police at the scene told The San Francisco Standard that Twitter had the required work order but hadn’t notified building security or its owners.
“Officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure,” an SFPD spokesperson said in a statement to the outlet.
“Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that no crime was committed and this incident was not a police matter,” the spokesperson added.
After the stoppage, the letters “e” and “r” were still visible on the sign. It’s unclear if the final letters had been removed as of early Tuesday afternoon.
The San Francisco department of building inspection, which oversees construction projects for the city, told local outlet KTVU that it had received two complaints and was awaiting instruction on whether the company needed a building permit to proceed.
“Removing or relocating the sign would require a building permit,” a DBI spokesperson told the outlet.
The Post has reached out to the SFPD and the city’s department of building inspection for further comment on the situation.
Musk had earlier projected a giant “X” logo on the side of the company’s San Francisco headquarters on Sunday, hours after he announced plans to do away with the other logo and branding.
The billionaire Tesla CEO has faced some sharp criticism over the rebrand, with some experts arguing that he had essentially torched years of brand equity established as Twitter became one of the most recognizable websites in the world.
Musk defended the move in a long post on Monday evening, declaring that the “Twitter name does not make sense” given his plans to transform X into a super-app combining social media with financial services and more.
“This is not simply a company renaming itself, but doing the same thing,” Musk said. “The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140 character messages going back and forth – like birds tweeting – but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video.”
The work stoppage is just the latest sign of drama for the company formerly known as Twitter at its home base. The company was sued in January for allegedly not paying rent in San Francisco.
In April, Musk altered the company’s signage to say “Titter” as part of his escalating feud with the landlord.
“Our landlord at SF HQ says we’re legally required to keep sign as Twitter & cannot remove ‘w’, so we painted it background color. Problem solved!” Musk said at the time.
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