Elon Musk appears to really want the sign outside Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters to say “Titter” — and he was ready to have some paintwork done to make it happen.
The CEO of the social media platform tweeted a picture of the sign with the W painted over in white to blend in with the background on Sunday.
“Our landlord at SF HQ says we’re legally required to keep the sign as Twitter & cannot remove ‘w,’ so we painted it a background color,” Musk wrote in the caption. “The issue has been resolved!”
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk), 10 April 2023
According to photos of the building uploaded to the platform by several Twitter users, Musk’s plan to change the “Twitter” sign to “Titter” has been in the works for a few days.
William LeGate, an entrepreneur, and programmer tweeted a picture of the sign with the W obscured on Thursday.
“In a remarkable display of maturity, Elon Musk has removed the W from Twitter’s logo outside their San Francisco headquarters,” LeGate’s caption read.
April 6, 2023 —LeGate (@williamlegate)
SRI Nine Market Square LLC, the building’s landlord, did not immediately respond to a question about why the initial change was unacceptable and whether the painted-over signage would be permitted.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk has made several significant changes to the company’s headquarters in San Francisco. In January, he attempted to sell hundreds of items from the office in order to increase revenue for Twitter, including kitchen appliances, Twitter sculptures, furniture, and even office plants.
Twitter cut janitorial services in the headquarters in December, forcing employees to bring their own toilet paper to work.
The disagreements over the Twitter sign are the latest in Musk’s long-running feud with the building’s landlord. In January, SRI filed a lawsuit against Musk’s Twitter. The lawsuit accused Twitter of failing to pay $3.4 million in rent for the headquarters’ Market Street location in December and January.
Musk, on the other hand, has been tinkering with Twitter’s interface. Musk replaced Twitter’s bird logo last week with the Shiba Inu — or doge — meme. Following this change, the price of Musk’s preferred cryptocurrency, dogecoin, increased by 20%.
