In July 2023, Elon Musk rebranded the social media platform Twitter as X. From that day forth up to and including today, the BBC has insisted on informing us that X was formerly known as Twitter. Here’s an example from today’s BBC online news website:

“I am grateful for their contributions and hope that, in time, some of them will feel able to return,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter.

Extract from a BBC article about the Jewish Chronicle, 16/09/2024

It’s driving me nuts—big nuts, nuts as big as coco de mer. Even bigger. The BBC’s clarification started last year as ‘X, formerly known as Twitter,’ and in December 2023, I protested the constant need for explanation, finishing my comments with ‘Please, please, please; stop.’

My plea has fallen on deaf ears. Fourteen months after Musk’s rebranding, the BBC still thinks it needs to remind us that X was formerly Twitter. Fourteen months! The only thing that’s changed is the words ‘known as’ have been dropped. We’ve gone from ‘X, formerly known as Twitter’ to ‘X, formerly Twitter.’ Will the reference soon become ‘X, ex-Twitter’ and be abbreviated to XxT?

When will the name X become standalone? I have it on good authority that in three months, Musk will rebrand X to Y, with a further rebranding to Z planned sometime in late 2026 or, possibly, early 2027.

When these rebrandings occur, you can look forward to the BBC’s clarifications of ‘Y, formerly X, formerly Twitter’ followed by ‘Z, formerly Y, formerly X, formerly Twitter.’ I hope Musk doesn’t continue the rebranding starting with ‘A, formerly Z, formerly Y, formerly X, formerly Twitter’ followed by B…

And, let us fervently, ardently, passionately hope that Musk never decides to revert to the original name of Twitter.

(^_^)