Cops Called as Twitter Tries to Change Sign to "X"

"We’re cutting the Twitter logo off the building with blow torches."

Sign of the Times

Cops were called yesterday to the San Francisco headquarters of the social media company formerly known as Twitter — and now seemingly called X — because crews were trying to remove the Twitter sign but apparently didn't have required permits.

All told, it's an episode that's both amusing and painfully symbolic of the much-derided rollout of the new company name, not to mention the general tenure of CEO Elon Musk's mercurial and at times shambolic management style.

A bit after 3pm, Getty Images photojournalist Justin Sullivan tweeted a photo of a cherry picker parked outside the Twitter building. With the cherry picker's telescoping crane and platform posed next to the Twitter sign, it looked like the old logo was slated to come down after Musk's announcement about Twitter changing its name to X.

"We’re cutting the Twitter logo off the building with blow torches," Musk had said on Sunday.

Cop Dusters

But as crews were taking down parts of the Twitter sign, officers from the San Francisco Police Department were called to the scene. The Associated Press reported that the company didn't have the required permits and hadn't cordoned off the sidewalk from pedestrians for safety reasons.

In the end, several letters were removed, leaving an "er."

Elon and Winding Road

Twitter denizens greeted the sign change and the police presence with virtual Bronx cheers.

"Perfect allegory for Elon’s management skills," quipped one Twitter user.

Since he acquired Twitter for $44 billion last year, Musk has had an extremely chaotic tenure. He's lost both advertisers and users who are annoyed at moves such as limiting the number of tweets people could see or relaxing moderation guidelines.

Seen from a bird's eye point of view, the abrupt Twitter name change, which experts are calling ill advised, conforms to a pattern of general messiness and chaos at Musk's harem of companies. Tesla has been dragged down by embarrassing quality control complaints and federal investigations into the questionable safety of its Autopilot driver assist feature. During his helm at PayPal, fellow billionaire Peter Thiel led the ouster of Musk after company disagreements.

All told, while Musk sees the X as symbolizing "the imperfections in us all that make us unique," the public seems to see things very differently.

Instead, the X is signaling to many people that the letter means  "Stop" and "Dead End."

More on Twitter: Business Genius Elon Musk Says He's Changing Twitter's Name