The iconic vertical Twitter sign at the company’s Market Street headquarters had some of its letters removed on Monday afternoon as Elon Musk rebrands the San Francisco-based social media platform as X.
The Standard saw several of the sign’s letters taken off and collected on the ground at around 12:45 p.m., the company has occupied the office since June 2012 at the corner of 10th and Market streets.
An aerial work platform vehicle, sometimes called a cherry picker, was spotted at the scene as workers took the metal signage apart.
San Francisco police officers were seen talking with workers at around 12:50 p.m. Work appeared to have been stopped.
As of 1:30 p.m., work was paused at the site and only the letters “er” were left of the word “Twitter” on the 10th Street side of the sign, the bird logo also remains in place. The Market Street side of the sign remained intact.
Police on the scene said someone with Twitter had a work order to take the sign down but didn’t communicate it with security and the property owner of the building. Police were called amid the confusion.
“Officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market streets regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure,” a police spokesperson said in an email. “Through their investigation, officers were able to determine that no crime was committed and this incident was not a police matter.”
“This is what’s great about representing District 6,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey, gesturing toward a Cruise robotaxi that briefly became stuck behind the crane and police car at 10th Street. “This is so 2023.”
Dorsey said he worked with tech public relations firm Applied Communications in 1999. During that time, he said he worked with Elon Musk’s original X.com, before it was sold and rebranded as PayPal. He called it a “full-circle moment.”
“I don’t care that the name is changing […] as long as it’s not Truth Social,” said Walter Vargas, who lives near the offices and was walking his dog in the area.
“Meta changes its name, Google changed to Alphabet, I think it makes sense if Elon wants to make his app different from [the original] Twitter,” said Robert Ingers, who works in the tech industry and was walking by the Market Street offices as the sign was being dismantled.
“This is dumb. It’s the same thing, no matter what. It’s pointless. They’re arguing over something that’s not going to change,” said Juan Marcos Martinez, who was walking through the area.
The Department of Building Inspection, which regulates construction work in the city, did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.
The social media company said it would respond to requests for comment soon. Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in October last year before slashing its staff.
The X started to appear at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but the bird logo was still dominant across the smartphone app. In response to questions about what tweets would be called when the rebranding is done, Musk said they would be called “Xs.”
It’s yet another change that Musk has made since acquiring Twitter that has alienated users and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging site vulnerable to new threats, including rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads that directly targets Twitter users.
Musk had asked fans for logo ideas and chose one, which he described as minimalist Art Deco, saying it “certainly will be refined.” He replaced his own Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted a picture of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the Twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.
The X.com web domain now redirects users to Twitter.com.