Elon Musk’s giant flashing X on Twitter headquarters sparks investigation – as officials say it may break rules
San Francisco’s Department of Building Inspection has said it is investigating a giant flashing X on top of Twitter’s headquarters, amid a series of complaints.
People based in the area complained about intrusive lights, with video circulating on social media showing the X sign emitting a blinding white pulsing light, particularly affecting a high-rise building on the other side of the street.
The company’s new sign is part of owner Elon Musk‘s rebrand of Twitter, which he claims will involve the creation of an “everything app”.
The ‘X’ logo is seen reflected on an apartment window across the street from the headquarters
But the Californian city’s department of building inspection said the structure may violate permitting rules.
An inspector said in a written statement that officials were denied access to the building’s roof twice by Twitter representatives to inspect the logo. The inspector noted one staff member said the sign was temporary.
The sign remained on top of the building on Sunday.
The X appeared after San Francisco police stopped workers from removing the brand’s decade-old bird and logo from the side of the building earlier this week, saying they had not taped off the footpath to keep pedestrians safe if anything fell.
Any replacement letters or symbols would require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building” and to make sure additions are safely attached to the sign, Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the department of building inspection, said earlier this week.
The sign atop the company headquarters in downtown
Inspectors were refused access to the building roof to see the new sign
Erecting a sign on top of a building also requires a permit, Mr Hannan said.
“Planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign. The city is opening a complaint and initiating an investigation,” he said.
The department opened a separate investigation in December into a complaint alleging Mr Musk had built bedrooms in the San Francisco headquarters for workers.
The rebranding is the latest major change since he bought Twitter in October last year for $44 billion (£34.3 billion).
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The changes include the apps “verified” blue tick status being monetised in April and a temporary limit at the start of July on the number of posts users were allowed to read.
The long-standing blue logo, known as Larry the Bird, has been Twitter’s emblem since its creation in 2006, with the current design in use since 2012.
A worker dismantles the old sign at Twitter’s corporate headquarters
In April, Musk briefly replaced the logo with a small picture of a Shibu Inu dog, famously known as the Doge meme, in an apparent nod to the cryptocurrency Dogecoin.
Musk, who is also CEO of Tesla, had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. He also named one of his children X.
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The changes at Twitter prompted Facebook owner Meta to launch Threads, its own text-based conversation app, earlier this month.
Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said more than 30 million people had signed up to use his rival messaging app in the first 24 hours.
Twitter threatened to sue the company over what it alleged were stolen trade secrets.
Kanye West Pic: AP
The investigation into the logo comes as the company reinstated Kanye West’s account after eight months’ suspension.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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