Late last month, Virginia startup Operation Bluebird launched Twitter.now, its own take on the old social media platform after the original was taken over by Elon Musk and renamed X. Recently, the social media site has rebranded as Tweet.app instead. The company also maintains its version of the blue bird logo. This is because, according to reports, a US court found that the name “Twitter” would infringe trademarks, but the word “tweet” and the blue bird logo would not.
Engadget reports that US District Judge Colm Connolly issued the initial ruling, saying that the original name would still cause confusion for consumers. That would make sense, as plenty of users still refer to X as Twitter. That being said, users also still refer to posts on X as tweets, so it’s interesting that the court ruled that X has likely abandoned the word as well as the bird logo. On the FAQ section of the new page, the company says it will “follow the court order while the case proceeds to trial”.
The URL change aside, Operation Bluebird is still asking for US$20 (~RM80.89) from new signups. As before, paying for this at this stage makes you a Founder. That said, there is also the option to pay US$40 (~RM161.78) or more to gain access, and doing so makes you a Fighter. For your money, you get all the benefits of being a Founder, as well as “the slingshot badge on your profile” to prove that “you didn’t just show up – you stood up”.
Another report by TechCrunch notes that there are over 172,000 users who have paid the Founders’ fee and requested a handle on the site. The report also speculates that the cost of signing up “likely helps cover its legal bills”. If that did not apply to the Founder tier, it definitely would be for the Fighter tier.
(Source: Tweet.app, CourtListener [PDF] Engadget, TechCrunch)
