A major flaw in Elon Musk’s decision to rebrand Twitter to ‘X’ has emerged in Indonesia. One of the nation’s government agencies has blocked the rebranded platform because of a site called X.com’s history of breaking strict anti-gambling and pornography laws.
Indonesia’s Director General of Information and Public Communication, Usman Kansong, told local media that after speaking to Twitter, Musk’s firm said it would “send a letter to us to say that X.com will be used by Twitter.”
Indonesia’s reported 24 million Twitter users have no way of accessing the platform
Until the letter prompts any action, Indonesia’s reported 24 million Twitter users have no way of accessing the platform. On top of this major blow to Twitter’s presence in Indonesia, Musk’s obsession with the letter X has caused problems closer to home, with permit issues causing the San Francisco PD to halt the removal of the old Twitter sign from its San Francisco headquarters on Monday.
Even before the news from Indonesia, Bloomberg estimated the rebrand from the blue bird to the black X has blown anywhere between $4bn and $20bn off the value of the company. Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last year before merging it into X Corp.