Operation Bluebird, a Virginia-based startup seeking to revive the Twitter name and logo, has launched a new social media platform called Twitter.now.
Stephen Coates, co-founder of Operation Bluebird and former
general counsel of Twitter, said the company decided to launch the platform
after months of waiting for a ruling in its trademark dispute with X
Corporation.
“We are a small company, we have investors, and we have a
product,” Coates told Ars Technica on
Wednesday.
“And we have waited months and months to launch, and we are
not going to wait anymore.”
Elon Musk acquired Twitter
in 2022 and subsequently changed the company’s name to X, prompting Coates and
his colleagues to argue that the former Twitter identity and intellectual
property had been abandoned.
Operation Bluebird subsequently sought to claim the
Twitter trademarks, but X Corporation sued the
startup late last year and asked a federal court in Delaware to stop the launch
of a new Twitter platform.
At a hearing in April 2026, Colm Connolly, US district court
Judge, reportedly gave a tentative ruling suggesting that X may have abandoned
intellectual property claims over the word “tweet” and the Twitter bird logo,
and potentially the “Twitter” name.
The judge, however, has yet to issue a written order.
Coates said Operation Bluebird interpreted the judge’s
comments as sufficient grounds to proceed with the launch.
“It’s our opinion that X has abandoned its rights on the
Twitter and tweet trademarks,” he said.
‘TWITTER.NOW IS NOT X’
The startup has also sought to distinguish Twitter.now from
Musk’s X, stating on its website that it is rebuilding the platform around
trust and is “not X” and has no affiliation with X Corp.
Twitter.now currently has hundreds of users and retains
features associated with the original Twitter, including replies and reposts.
The platform also includes an automated fact-checking
feature called Vera, a Gemini-based “veracity engine” designed to analyse posts
in real time.
Coates said the company’s goal is to create a social media
platform that encourages free expression while reducing the spread of harmful
or inaccurate content.
“Our first goal is to see if we can truly bring back a town
square that’s safer and less harmful,” he said.
According to the publication, Josh Gerben, a
Washington-based trademark attorney who has followed the case, said Operation
Bluebird may have a “workable legal theory” for claiming that X abandoned the
Twitter trademark, but warned that the dispute was far from settled.
“It was one thing to file the trademark application; now
that they’ve launched, there will be another response from [X Corporation],”
Gerben said.
He added that “they’ve really upped the ante now. It’s a
really interesting escalation of the case”.
WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT TWITTER.NOW
Here are some of the features and policies on the platform:
• AI-powered fact-checking
Twitter.now runs posts through an artificial intelligence
tool called Vera, which the company describes as a real-time “veracity engine”.
The tool is designed to analyse posts and provide users with
information about the accuracy or trustworthiness of claims.
• Trust Dial
The platform has a feature called the “Trust Dial”, which
allows users to determine the level of trust they require from content
appearing in their feeds.
The company says the feature is intended to give users
greater control over what they see rather than relying entirely on an algorithm
to determine their feed.
• Freedom of speech, not freedom of reach
Twitter.now says users are free to express their views, but
that does not guarantee that every post will receive maximum visibility.
Content considered spammy, manipulative, harassing or
deliberately misleading can have its reach reduced under the platform’s
policies.
• Paid access
The platform is using a paid early-access model.
Users can pay $20 to become “Founders,” while those
contributing $40 or more can become “Fighters”.
The company says the model is designed partly to discourage
bots and reduce dependence on advertising.
• No sale of user data
Twitter.now says it will not sell users’ data to strangers.
The platform’s privacy policies say users should have
greater control over their information and how it is used.
• Rules apply to everyone
The platform’s “Birdhouse Constitution” says its rules apply
regardless of a user’s popularity, wealth, political position or number of
followers.
It prohibits threats, targeted harassment, doxxing, stalking
and incitement, among other forms of harmful behaviour.
• It looks like the old Twitter
Despite the new policies and features, Twitter.now retains
several elements familiar to users of the original Twitter, including replies
and reposts.
The startup says it is rebuilding the service around what it
describes as trust, rather than copying Elon Musk’s X.
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