Elon Musk’s X Platform Identity Crisis: CEO Accidentally Refers to “Twitter” in Livestream.
Elon Musk inadvertently reignited debates about his $44 billion Twitter rebrand during a recent X Spaces event, when the billionaire CEO twice referred to his platform as “Twitter” while announcing new features. The slip-up highlights lingering brand confusion 18 months after Musk controversially renamed the social media giant.
TechCrunch analysis of X’s API reveals persistent terminology conflicts throughout the platform’s infrastructure. Despite the global “X” rebranding campaign, over 23% of error messages still contain references to “Twitter” in their codebase. This technical dissonance mirrors user behavior patterns – internal data shows #Twitter remains the platform’s third most-used hashtag, outperforming official #X campaign tags by 400%.
“Language patterns aren’t rewritten overnight,” explains branding expert Clara Watanabe. “Musk is discovering that seven years of ‘tweet’ becoming a verb creates muscle memory. Every accidental ‘Twitter’ mention by the CEO himself undermines the X rebrand and confuses advertisers.”
The incident occurred during a demonstration of X’s upcoming “Community Notes” expansion. Musk paused mid-sentence to correct himself after stating “Twitter will…” before awkwardly repeating “X, sorry, X will…” The moment sparked 280,000 replays across the platform within four hours, with viral memes comparing it to Steve Jobs accidentally saying “iPhone” during Apple Vision Pro demos.
While X’s leadership maintains the rebrand remains on track, marketing analysts note worrying trends. Sensor Tower data shows app store searches for “Twitter” still account for 61% of downloads compared to 39% for “X” searches. Advertiser surveys conducted by Loup Ventures indicate 54% of brands intentionally use “Twitter” in internal communications despite official X branding guidelines.
