UPDATE 7/31: The sign atop Twitter's headquarters has been removed, according to various reports. As ABC 7 notes, the large installation was gone as of Monday morning, and crews were instead working on the sign that currently sits on the side of the building.
Original Story:
It’s been a big week for Twitter, or should we say X.
Last weekend, Twitter owner Elon Musk tweeted plans to rename the company X, since then, the company has changed the logo and name of the site and transferred all of @Twitter’s followers to the account @X, which it seized from a user that has had the handle for 16 years.
The company also placed a new X sign on top of the Twitter building, and it’s not being well received by the city or X’s neighbors.
After being stopped from removing the Twitter logo from the building earlier in the week due to not filing a permit, Musk erected a large X on the top of Twitter’s downtown San Francisco headquarters, for which he also failed to obtain design or safety permits.
In an interview with Deadline, Patrick Hannan, spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection in San Francisco, said that the sign would require a permit to ensure “consistency with the historic nature of the building,” as well as ensure the work was done safely and isn’t a danger to pedestrians near the building or others.
Currently, X has refused to give inspectors access to the roof of the building so they can inspect the sign, and the building owner has repeatedly called the police about the changes.
The lack of permits also isn’t the only issue. The sign is very, very bright and shines directly into an apartment building across the street from the company’s headquarters.
Christopher J. Beale, whose video is linked above, is an audio engineer for the TV station KTVU and said the sign was on “full blast” at 11 p.m. at night. "It lit this entire area up like it was daylight,” he told KTVU. "Even with the shades down…it was to the point where we couldn't even watch the movie we were trying to watch in the living room and we had to move to the other side of the apartment."
