X marks the spot where Twitter was laid to rest

Elon Musk is almost done killing Twitter. Whether his $44 billion investment will go with it is about all that remains to be seen after Mr. Musk announced a name change to X over the weekend. That was followed yesterday by the dumping of the social site's iconic bird logo and replacing it with an image of the letter X that someone tweeted to him.

Mr. Musk's decision to pursue an X trademark may bring him into potential legal conflict with Meta (what would a Musk story be without a Mark Zuckerberg angle), Microsoft and nearly 900 other companies that lay one claim or another to the letter for business use.

"There's a 100 percent chance that Twitter is going to get sued over this by somebody," trademark attorney Josh Gerben told Reuters.

The new logo, which has its fair share of both critics and fans, is reported to be part of Mr. Musk's bigger vision of X as a social platform along the lines of WeChat, which has been called China's everything app because it allows users in the Asian nation to message one another, engage in video chats, stream content and make payments.

Mr. Musk's idea is not original as others, including Meta (there's that Zuckerberg character again), Google, TikTok and Uber looking to expand the functionality of their apps to increase usage and open access to new revenue streams.

NPR tech reporter Bobby Allyn also says that Mr. Musk's dream of a super app could also run into resistance among regulators and lawmakers in the nation's capital as well as at the state level who have "become wary of any one tech company having too much control over our digital lives."

There's also the issue of Mr. Musk's favorability among the public. He tracks well with politically conservative Americans and poorly with more liberal members of society.

Twitter has lost users and advertisers since Mr. Muck took the company private last October and promised the site would encourage and celebrate free speech.

Researchers have reported a sharp uptick in hate speech and disinformation used against Blacks, Jews, LGBTQ individuals and other minority groups historically targeted by bigots.

Mr. Musk disbanded Twitter's Trust & Safety Council, a voluntary advisory group pushing back against hate speech on the platform, after acquiring the social media site. He has welcomed back users previously banned for engaging in hate speech and disinformation.

The owner of X has also lifted protections for transgender individuals using the app even as federal law enforcement authorities have said there has been a sharp increase in threats and violent attacks against members of the LGBTQ community.?