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THE CITY OF San Francisco, in California, United States have warned the company formerly known as Twitter that it needs proper permits for the giant, flashing new X sign atop its headquarters, after the tech firm twice refused to let building inspectors check it.
The sign, installed on the roof of the company’s downtown office last week, is part of owner Elon Musk’s bid to rebrand the troubled social media giant to the 24th letter of the alphabet.
But local residents have complained, both to media and on Musk’s app, about the brilliant flashing lights emitting from the sign at night. Some have also complained about safety, suggesting the sign – which looms over the building’s edge – does not appear securely anchored to the roof.
Our HQ in San Francisco tonight pic.twitter.com/VQO2NoX9Tz
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 29, 2023
A building inspector following up on a complaint first went to the tech firm’s headquarters on Friday – but was not allowed onto the roof to check the sign, according to the complaint posted on a city website.
Instead, a Twitter representative told the inspector that the structure was “a temporary lighted sign for an event,” the complaint showed.
A second attempt by an inspector to check the sign was also rebuffed on Saturday, according to the city.
Today, the city sent X a notice of violation warning that it needed proper permits for the sign. The city website says that such notices can result in fees, but it was not immediately clear if X would face any financial penalty.
When contacted by AFP about the complaint, X replied with an automated message saying it would respond “soon”.
Musk has brushed off the backlash to the sign and to the rebrand in general, responding with a laughing emoji to one X user’s post about the city being at odds with him over the new sign.
The billionaire killed off Twitter’s globally recognizable bird logo early last week as he rebranded the company he hopes to turn into a super-app inspired by China’s WeChat, which would function as a social media platform and also offer messaging and payments.
Since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion last October, the platform’s advertising business has collapsed as marketers soured on Musk’s management style and mass firings at the company that gutted content moderation.
In response, he has moved toward building a subscriber base and pay model in a search for new revenue.
Workers last week were stopped while removing the Twitter sign and blue bird logo from the headquarters due to a lack of proper permits.
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I’ve yet to see Elon Musk actually create anything. He inherited huge wealth from his father who owned an emerald mine. He has just bought up companies created by actual innovators and claimed them as his own. That’s not the same as actually doing anything. Also, for all of the free speech people out there, he has banned so many people off the platform that he didn’t agree with. My twitter feed is just 60% promoted tweets now, and a load of bots telling me to buy crypto (another scam).
@Sylvia Power: Hi Sylvia…stay away from Crypto…invest in ZIM and Dinar Currency.Savvy MAGA’s have purchased container loads of ZIM and they will be trillionaires when the RV happens..
@Sylvia Power: So why are you on X as it seems you have a resentment against it or its owner.
@Nick Cahill: Because Twitter was a great place for alternative media and other interesting bits. I used it for work in the past. I just don’t think the richest person in the history of the world should be able to buy something that is essentially a global public utility as a vanity project! Musk got really annoyed at how much he was being made fun of on Twitter, and that’s why he bought it
@Sylvia Power: Is there any evidence to back up the story about his father owning an emerald mine?
@Sylvia Power: He has done more than 99% of people who have ever lived. All of those companies were highly unlikely to suceed at the time and each one has led to technological progress in their own field by sparking competition. Companies are not easy to run. Most ideas fail. All ideas require capital and bussiness acumen to scale and to make an impact. A certain crowd don’t like him now because he doesn’t toe the line of a very narrowly circumscribed set of views and he has become the bogey man of the liberal left as a result. You might listen to one of his long form interviews, you might be suprised.
@Davejohnston: even Wikipedia says his father part owner an emerald mine. “His father, Errol Musk, is a South African electromechanical engineer, pilot, sailor, consultant, and property developer, who partly owned a Zambian emerald mine near Lake Tanganyika.” That said there is not a lot of evidence that Elon acquired millions from his family as most money was made developing IT and moving it on. It actually makes interesting reading so thank you for the question https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elon_Musk
@Tom D: Twitter was unlikely to succeed? Musk because famous because he called a diver from the Vietnamese rescue a “pedophile” – totally baseless. Musk was ousted from PayPal and replaced by Peter Thiel by shareholders. Musk is a leech off actual engineers – another rich boy who has no talent, just money. Funny how some people on here defend him, like Musk would ever do the same for them!
@Sylvia Power: So how does one go about becoming the richest person in history by doing absolutely nothing?
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: “Savvy MAGA’s”
Oh I needed a laugh today..
What a non story. Although if the letters were DEI and multi-coloured and not owned by Musk, it would be cheered on and the permit waived.
@Nick Cahill: OK but you just invented that scenario in your head
@Sylvia Power: Obviously. I like you, you are smart.
Meanwhile large swathes of the city has been taken over by so called tent cities, open drug use and dealing, defecation, needles and vomit littered all over the streets in many parts of the city. Rampant organized shoplifting, day robbery and carjarkings. A lot of the prime shop spaces remain vacant after Covid. All that is fine but a large neon X on the Twitter building – no way jose
@Tom D: Ha, for a minute there i thought you were describing Dublin City.
@Tom D: “Free for all on everything I don’t care about until the things I care about are fixed”. Did I get that right?
How about a story on sf massive homeless problem?
‘Salty Democrat voters… sorry – “Local residents” complained about the flashing lights emitting from the sign at night.’
The guy is a laughing stock. This Twitter saga could finish him, if his spaceship moon lander thingy doesn’t first.
@Lorne Malvo: it won’t finish him but since he took over, twitter has lost half its value and continues to decline. Must be one of the worst investment failures ever.
Im still banned…all i said was trump put the cure for covid in the chemtrails.
@Chief Of police Retired – Truther MAGA Trump 2024: There. You’ve said it again. You’re in trouble now, son!
Thanks to a bit of reading to research a comment, I discovered that Elon Musk had a company call X dot com way back in 1999 and it merged to become PayPal. He made money there.
For sentimental reasons he bought back the X dot com name 15 years later. He had ideas of creating the X app, the app of everything. I actually gained a little more respect from reading about his overall achievements although I was never a fan, or a fan of twitter. It is always nice to be surprised
I cannot believe what I’m reading in the comments. Also, the former twitter logo was the best of the social media logos in my opinion. An X is so absent of originality. It’s what people who couldn’t sign their own name used to write as a signature. The irony. Aside from that it’s quite a negative symbol. No surprises. A very anti-social gesture, I’d say.
Fine him 100 million thousand dollars.
And ban him from using the letter “X” in speech or text.
Repercussions could involve spending 24 hours in a room with Donald Trump or Varadkar. Both if he gets real stroppy bout it.
Same place that has shops sealing standard everyday purchases behind plastic panels because of the huge amount of shoplifting, same place with huge amount of car jacking – people even leave their windows open to prevent them from being smashed, and same place with massive drug problems and tent cities.
Poor old Elton can’t seem to get a break at all
@Jb Walshe: last time I seen him was at Glastonbury and was looking great jb.
@Paul Gorry: was the X there Paul ?
@Jb Walshe: Absolutely Elton always has the X factor jb.
Who gives a boll#X
@Barry Tallon: it’s bollox Barry ain’t it?
i think at this stage we should demand a permit from him just for being Elon.
Revolkable at the very mention of the character X
How does that sound ?>
He named one his kids X..
have your say