After rebranding, X took @x from its original Twitter owner and offered him merch

https://www.npr.org/2023/07/29/ [login to see] /twitter-x-account-owner-gene-hwang-elon-musk
Gene X Hwang knew his days on Twitter as @x were numbered.

"Elon had been kind of tweeting about X previously," Hwang said. "So I kind of knew, you know, I had an inkling that this was going to happen. I didn't really know when."

Since 2007, Hwang's username on the site was @x — but after Elon Musk renamed the social media platform to X earlier this week, it was only a matter of time before the company commandeered the handle.