Elon Musk took the @X Twitter handle from Gene X Hwang without paying and moved his account to a new handle.

After acquiring Twitter last year, Elon Musk has been enforcing a myriad of changes. He recently replaced the iconic blue bird Twitter logo with a white “X.”

Last week, the billionaire even changed the Twitter logo to an X on a black background. Thanks to the ongoing rebranding process, the @Twitter handle is no longer existing.

And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 23, 2023

Also, Musk took over the account of a San Francisco-based photographer, Gene X Hwang. Notably, the Twitter handle @X belongs to Hwang for the past 16 years.

Hwang received an email from Twitter stating his Twitter handle is now their property. “They just took it essentially – kinda what I thought might happen.” Hwang told the UK-based daily The Telegraph.

Elon Musk continues Twitter rebranding

According to the photographer, Musk did not pay him for taking over his account, although he was willing to sell it to the microblogging site.

Hwang, the co-founder of event photo company Orange Photography, claims he had been willing to sell his @x account, which he registered in 2007. However, he just received an email saying the account was being taken over by Twitter.

ELON SEIZED @X 🚨

Owner of handle X asked 1.000.000$ for it 💸@elonmusk proceeded to take it himself for 0$

Chad move or an example of why we need decentralization ? pic.twitter.com/Wz0sQ1IkZ3

— Ataberk 🖇️ (@ataberkrgn) July 26, 2023

Although he was offered some X merchandise and a chance to meet with the company’s management, Hwang said he was not offered any financial incentive.

Alls well that ends well

— x (@x12345678998765) July 26, 2023

”They did send an email saying it is the property of ‘x’ essentially,” he said. Now, his account has been moved to a new handle called “@x12345678998765″. Hwang wrote, “All’s well that ends well.”

It is worth noting that Twitter users do not have legal rights over their usernames. According to the company’s terms of service, the company will remove people’s accounts in cases of trademark infringement.

Hwang had signed up for the Twitter account just a year after the platform launched in 2006. Musk also now owns the x.com domain name, which directs to twitter.com.