The city of San Francisco is investigating the X-shaped structure installed on the roof of the headquarters of Twitter, renamed X, a new twist in the complicated relationship between Elon Musk, president of X, and the authorities. A city planning department inspector who came to investigate the steel structure was denied access to the building on Friday and Saturday, according to an official report. However, a company representative told him that it was a “temporary neon sign for an event”.
At night, the structure lights up with a play of bright lights. Questioned by local television channels, residents of the neighborhood complained of a level of brightness as in broad daylight, to the point of having been dazzled. A week ago, Elon Musk renamed Twitter “X”, a mathematical symbol that he likes and which can be found in particular in SpaceX, one of his companies, and the first name of one of his children, a boy named ” X Æ A-XII”, or “X” from its diminutive.
The owner of the social network wants to transform it into a platform to do everything on the model of WeChat in China. “X is the future state of limitless interactivity – centered around audio, video, messaging, payments/banking – creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services and opportunities,” said explained the company’s new general manager, Linda Yaccarino.
But the billionaire encountered several obstacles with the city of San Francisco, which already intervened last week when workers removed the letters from the original sign on the edge of the building. A part is still in place. “I explained to all the representatives [of the group] that the structure (in the form of X) must be withdrawn or submitted for approval”, mentions the inspector in his report.
“Many people have made us attractive proposals to move the headquarters of X out of San Francisco, especially since the city is engaged in a tragic spiral where the departures of companies follow one another”, declared Elon Musk on the network social Saturday. But “we won’t leave,” he promised. His profile features a photo of the illuminated X on the roof.
At the end of 2021, Elon Musk moved the headquarters of his flagship, Tesla, to Texas, a state with flexible taxation and a lower cost of living. He had clashed with California authorities over the mandatory plant shutdown at the start of the pandemic. Last winter, his lawyers tried to move a fraud trial from San Francisco to Texas, claiming that an impartial jury could not be assembled in the Democratic city.
