Elon Musk wants to turn tweets into 'X's". But changing language is not quite so simple
San Francisco: Elon Musk may want to send “tweet” back to the birds, but the ubiquitous term for posting on the site he now calls X is here to stay — at least for now.
For one, the word is still plastered all over the site formerly known as Twitter. Write a post, you still need to press a blue button that says “tweet” to publish it. To repost it, you still tap “retweet.”
But it's more than that.
With “tweets,” Twitter accomplished in just a few years something few companies have done in a lifetime: It became a verb and implanted itself into the lexicon of America and the world. Upending that takes more than a top-down declaration, even if it is from the owner of Twitter-turned-X, who also happens to be one of the world's richest men.
“Language has always come from the people that use it on a day-to-day basis. And it can’t be controlled, it can’t be created, it can’t be morphed. You don’t get to decide it,” said Nick Bilton, the author of “Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal” about Twitter’s origins.
Twitter didn't start out as Twitter. It was “twttr” — without vowels, which was the trend in 2006 when the platform launched and SMS texting was wildly popular. The iPhone only came out in 2007.
Twitter co-founder Evan Williams "went one day and purchased the vowels, two vowels for essentially $7,500 each,” when he bought the URL for twitter.com from a bird enthusiast, Bilton said.
At the beginning, people didn't “tweet” — it was "I'm going to twitter this," Bilton recalled. But “twittered” doesn't roll off the tongue and “tweet” soon took over, first in the Twitter office, then San Francisco, then everywhere.
We've been tweeting for well over a decade. World leaders, celebrities and athletes, dissidents in repressive regimes, propaganda trolls, sex workers and religious icons, meme queens and actual queens. Former president Donald Trump's incendiary use of the bird app quickly punted “tweet” into near-constant headlines during his presidency. People who never signed up for Twitter knew what the word meant.
For now, we still tweet, retweet and quote tweet, and sometimes — perhaps not often enough — delete tweets. News sites embed tweets in their stories and TV programs scroll them. No other social network has a word for posting that’s entered the vernacular like “tweet” — though Google did the same for “googling."
The Oxford English Dictionary added “tweet” in 2011. Merriam-Webster followed in 2013. The Associated Press Stylebook entered it in 2010.
“Getting into the dictionary is an indication that people are already using it,” said Jack Lynch, a Rutgers University English professor who studies the history of language. “Dictionaries are usually pretty tentative or cautious about letting new words in, especially for new phenomena, because they don’t want things to be just a flash in the pan.”
As Twitter grew into a global communications platform and struggled with misinformation, trolls and hate speech, its friendly brand image remained. The bluebird icon evokes a smile, like the Amazon up-turned-arrow smile — in contrast to the X that Musk has imposed.
Martin Grasser was two years out of art school when Twitter hired him for the logo redesign in 2011. His wasn’t the first bird logo for Twitter, but it would be the most enduring.
“They knew they wanted a bird. So we weren’t starting completely over, but they wanted it to be on par with Apple and Nike. That was really brief,” he said.
Twitter launched Grasser's design in May 2012; the company went public on Wall Street later that year.
One early in-house design shown to Grasser looked like “a flying goose with a tail. It looked kind of like a dragon. It was crazy,” he said. Jack Dorsey, another co-founder (and twice-CEO) wanted something simpler.
The bird represented a vision of Twitter as a friendly place “where everyone can weigh in and chat,” Grasser said.
“The round form evokes a sense of optimism, the bird even being sort of turned upward, as corny as that sounds, I think is different than a bird flying down or flat," he said. "We wanted to give it this idea of like soaring.″
The word “Twitter” itself is playful, as is “tweet.” This was no accident, Bilton said.
Other names that floated as the platform started out included “Status” and “Friend Stalker.”
It was Noah Glass, another co-founder who never quite got the credit he deserved for his role in hatching Twitter, who had the winning idea.
Glass, Bilton said, “had been thinking about like heartbeats and emotions. He was going through a divorce and he literally went through the dictionary word by word until he came across the word twitter. And he just knew instantly that was it.”
“He was one of the four founders who had the emotional intelligence to be able to understand that this was about connecting with humans,” Bilton said. “It was inviting, it was emotional. It was about connecting with humans and your friends and your loved ones.”
Musk began his quest erasing Twitter's corporate culture and image in favor of his own vision as soon as he took over the company in October 2022. He lost three-quarters of the company's staff through firings, layoffs and voluntary departures, auctioned off furniture and décor, and upended policies on hate speech and misinformation. The rebranding to X was no surprise.
Twitter’s rebranding is rooted in ambition that Musk began to pursue nearly a quarter century ago after he sold his first startup, Zip2, to Compaq Computer. He set out to create a one-stop digital shop for finance called X.com — an “everything” service that would provide bank accounts, process payments, make loans and handle investments.
He has not given up on the dream. Twitter is now X, falling in line with Musk’s other X-named brands, SpaceX and Tesla’s Model X. Not to mention his young son, whom he calls “X.”
His goal for X is to turn it into an “everything” app — for video, photos, messaging, payments and other services, although he has given few details. For now, X.com is still, essentially Twitter.com, even as the bluebird and other playful tidbits start to disappear.
“There used to be a saying inside Twitter that Twitter was the company that couldn’t kill itself. I think that still rings true, whether it’s called Twitter or X,” Bilton said.
“I think that it’s kind of become a fabric of society. And even Elon Musk may not be able to break it.”
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Noida labour unrest: UP govt orders interim hike in minimum wages, says final wage fixation soon
Noida (PTI): The Uttar Pradesh government has directed an interim hike in minimum wages across worker categories following unrest in Noida, with revised rates coming into effect from April 1 retrospectively, officials here said on Tuesday.
The wage hike translates into an increase of up to Rs 3,000 across categories, with workers in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad witnessing a rise of up to 21 per cent in their monthly earnings, they said
The process for final wage fixation would be taken up through a wage board to be constituted soon, and the government is also considering additional welfare measures related to workers' health, pension and education of their children, Industrial Development Commissioner Deepak Kumar said.
The wage increase has been done by the high-powered committee, formed to look into the labour issues after large-scale protests by factory workers in Noida on Monday, to provide immediate financial relief to the workers, the officials said.
"The decision was approved by the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh late last night," Gautam Buddh Nagar District Magistrate Medha Roopam said.
According to a statement, the committee is working towards resolving industrial discord through dialogue and coordination, while also considering further measures to address workers' concerns.
Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath appealed to employers to ensure timely payment of wages, proper overtime compensation, weekly offs, bonuses and social security benefits, while maintaining safe working conditions, particularly for female workers, the statement said.
In Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad, unskilled workers will now get Rs 13,690 per month, up from Rs 11,313, while semi-skilled workers will receive Rs 15,059, and skilled workers Rs 16,868, according to an official statement.
For other municipal corporation areas, the revised monthly wages have been fixed at Rs 13,006 for unskilled workers, Rs 14,306 for semi-skilled workers, and Rs 16,025 for skilled workers.
In the remaining districts, unskilled workers will get Rs 12,356 per month, semi-skilled workers Rs 13,591, and skilled workers Rs 15,224. The decision follows consultations with employers' bodies and labour organisations.
The government said suggestions and objections were examined to ensure a "balanced and practical" outcome.
The statement said that industries are facing global economic challenges, including rising input costs and declining exports, even as workers' demands regarding wages, overtime, safety and working conditions remain "relevant and important."
"In such a situation, it is essential to adopt a balanced approach between industry and labour," the government said, adding that provisions under the new labour codes aim to ensure fair wages and protect workers' interests.
It said it is considering an interim increase in wages based on indexation and will initiate the process for final wage fixation on the recommendations of a wage board to be constituted soon.
Meanwhile, the government dismissed as "fake and misleading" reports circulating on social media claiming that a uniform minimum wage of Rs 20,000 per month had been fixed for workers.
Clarifying the position, it said the process of determining a national "floor wage" under the new labour codes is underway at the central level and no such notification had been issued.
Industrial Development Commissioner Deepak Kumar said the decision on wage hike was taken following a detailed review of the recent developments and was aimed at providing immediate financial relief to workers while maintaining a balanced approach.
"The Uttar Pradesh government, on the directions of the Chief Minister, has decided to implement an interim increase in minimum wages. The highest increase has been given to the skilled category, and in Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad, the hike goes up to 21 per cent. These revised rates will be effective from April 1, 2026," he said.
The committee, which visited Noida following the unrest, said workers' representatives had maintained that their agitation was peaceful and centred around demands such as wage hikes, weekly offs, double overtime pay, safety and dignified working conditions.
At the same time, the possibility of the involvement of "external elements" in the violence was flagged, with workers themselves expressing apprehension about outsiders fuelling the unrest, they said.
To address grievances and ensure better coordination, the administration has set up a dedicated control room at the district level. Workers can register complaints and seek assistance through helpline numbers 120-2978231, 120-2978232, 120-2978862 and 120-2978702, officials said.
The state government has also issued strict directions for action against anti-social elements involved in the violence, launching a special drive to identify such individuals through technical surveillance, intelligence inputs and local information gathering.
The officials said those found responsible would face stringent legal action, including arrests and criminal cases, asserting that attempts to disturb industrial harmony and law and order would not be tolerated.
So far, over 300 people have been arrested and seven FIRs lodged at different police stations in connection with Monday's violence, Police Commissioner Laxmi Singh said on Tuesday.
