A new Twitter launches and challenges Elon Musk's X
The blue bird is back, albeit with a new provider. Operation Bluebird has launched a social network at Twitter.now and is claiming the former name of X for it. Whether that will hold up legally remains to be seen.
Behind Twitter.now is the US startup Operation Bluebird. Among those involved is Stephen Coates, who previously worked for Twitter in trademark law. The platform deliberately adopts elements of the old Twitter, including tweets, retweets, and the blue bird. It is not affiliated with Elon Musk's company X.
The launch intensifies a trademark dispute that has been ongoing since the end of 2025. Operation Bluebird argues that X has abandoned the trademarks «Twitter» and «Tweet» as well as the bird logo. The startup points out that X gradually removed the former Twitter brand from its platform presence after the rebranding. Musk had restructured Twitter after the 2022 acquisition and renamed the platform to X in 2023.
Operation Bluebird therefore applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office in December 2025 to have several Twitter trademarks held by X cancelled. At the same time, the startup filed for «Twitter» itself as a trademark for a social network.
X wants to keep the name
X is fighting back and sued Operation Bluebird at the end of 2025. The company requested that a federal court in Delaware stop the planned relaunch. X argues that the rebranding did not cancel its trademark rights. In its terms of service, the company continues to list Twitter and Tweet as trademarks.
A decision is still pending. At a hearing in April, Judge Colm Connolly expressed doubts about whether X can still sufficiently assert its rights to the term «Tweet» and the bird logo. He also questioned X's position regarding the name Twitter.
Operation Bluebird is taking a legal risk with the launch. According to Ars Technica, trademark attorney Josh Gerben considers the startup's argument fundamentally plausible, but sees the outcome of the dispute as open.
Twitter with automatic fact-checking
Twitter.now is visually and functionally based on the former Twitter. Posts are once again called tweets, and users can reply to them or retweet them. The service is still in an early phase and currently has hundreds of users.
Source: Operation Bluebird
Operation Bluebird sets its own focus in how it handles information. A system based on Google's Gemini called «Vera» is intended to automatically analyze tweets and provide information on their veracity. At the same time, the company wants to give users more control over which content their feed highlights. Operation Bluebird has only partially explained how the system works in detail so far.
Access is currently fee-based. Operation Bluebird charges 20 US dollars for early-access membership. The company intends to use this to keep bots away and become less dependent on advertising, among other things.
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