Elon Musk took the @x username held for 16 years, offering the owner a T-shirt instead of its $40,000 value
Roker_51 · x · 2026-11-03
Photographer Gene X. Hwang registered @x on Twitter in 2007 and kept it for 16 years, turning down offers of up to $40,000. When Twitter rebranded to X in July 2023, the company simply informed him the handle belonged to X Corp and took it — with no compensation beyond a T-shirt and a headquarters tour.
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