- Twitter on Monday rolled out its new logo and brand: 𝕏.
- 𝕏 is a generic Unicode character known as "mathematical double-struck capital X."
- The new logo is also nearly identical to the lowercase "x" in the Monotype font "Special Alphabet 4."
Twitter has a new logo thanks to a major rebrand that Elon Musk announced over the weekend: 𝕏.
But the new branding looks suspiciously like a generic Unicode character known as "mathematical double-struck capital X" that was added to the Unicode in March 2001.
(Unicode is an international computing standard in which every character or symbol has a specific numerical value that can be used across platforms.)
Matthew Scroggs, a postdoctoral research fellow at University College London, tweeted — or is it "x'd" now? — that the character has "been used in mathematical text books since the 70s."
The symbol doesn't have a specific, universal use, but it's sometimes used to denote an abstract geometric space or object.
The new logo is also nearly identical to the lowercase "x" in the Monotype font "Special Alphabet 4."
Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The company's newly minted CEO, Linda Yaccarino, tweeted that Twitter — now called "X" — will "transform the global town square."
"X is the future state of unlimited interactivity – centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities," she continued. "Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine."
Musk polled his followers over the weekend for rebrand ideas, writing, "and soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds."
The tech mogul bought Twitter for $44 billion last year and has since introduced a slew of widely criticized changes to the platform. Among other things, he purged the company's ranks, overhauled Twitter's verification system, and limited users to viewing only a certain number of posts per day.
He's also challenged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to a fight as the two men continue to feud online. It's unclear if and when the fight is happening.