That Viral ‘@X Handle’ Thread Is Back. Here’s What Actually Happened to Gene X. Hwang

What Actually Happened in 2023

Musk announced the X rebrand over the weekend of July 22–23, 2023, and the bird logo was swapped for an X that Monday (NPR; SF Examiner). There was one problem: the company didn’t own @x. Hwang, a co-founder of the corporate photo and video studio Orange Photography, had it, and he told TechCrunch on July 25 that nobody from the company had reached out. He said he’d be willing to part with it “if they made an offer for it that made sense” (TechCrunch).

No offer came. Shortly afterward, Hwang got an email from support@twitter.com saying the handle was “affiliated with X Corp” and that he’d been moved to a new one (NBC News; Business Insider; Mashable). His new temporary handle was the memorable @x12345678998765, and his posts and his roughly 53,000 followers moved with him (Business Insider; Ars Technica). He was at a pinball tournament in Canada when the rebrand hit and found out when he landed (NPR).

The email, which Hwang shared with NBC News, offered his pick of available usernames and said: “As a reflection of our appreciation, you will also be provided with a selection of X merch and an exclusive visit to X’s HQ to meet members of our team.” It was signed simply “X” (NBC News). Hwang told Ars there was no financial compensation, and that it “would have been nice to have gotten something for the account” (Ars Technica). He also told NPR he’d asked for the blue bird from the headquarters sign and was told that wasn’t an option (NPR).

He took it in stride. He tweeted “Alls well that ends well” from his new handle and told TechCrunch, “It would have been nice for them to compensate for it since it did have a lot of value to me, but things are what they are” (TechCrunch). He said he wasn’t interested in a legal fight (Ars Technica).

Fact-Check: The Thread, Claim by Claim

• “Owned it for 16 years” / “2007”: True. Hwang held @x from March 2007 to July 2023 (SF Examiner; Ars Technica).
• “He paid him absolutely nothing”: True on money. No cash changed hands, per Hwang (Ars Technica; Mashable). It was the company, via a generic support email, rather than Musk personally. Hwang said he “didn’t need to hear from Mr. Musk directly” (Ars Technica; Mashable).
• “A $40,000 username”: Needs context. In 2018 Hwang said he’d had offers of $10,000 to $40,000 but didn’t believe they were legitimate and didn’t take them seriously (The Sun (2018)). That’s a reported offer range, not a price anyone actually paid.
• “A T-shirt and a tour”: Close, but not exact. The email promised “a selection of X merch” and an HQ visit to meet the team, and moved his account history to a new handle (NBC News; TechCrunch). Hwang told NPR some people warned him that taking the merch would make it “a transaction,” and he told Ars a management meeting would probably be awkward (NPR; Ars Technica). We found no report that he took either.
• “Hackers steal his account” in 2014: Unverified. We couldn’t find reporting to back it up. The best-known handle theft of 2014 involved a different single-letter account, @N (CSO Online).
• The pinball tournament and the blue bird: Both true, from Hwang’s NPR interview (NPR).
• The Handle Marketplace: Mostly true. X said in October 2025 that rare handles would cost $2,500 to seven figures. Free “priority” handles revert if you drop your subscription, but purchased rare handles stay with the buyer (TechCrunch).

Our Take: Legal, Sure. Still a Bad Look

This is opinion. Technically, X was within its rights. Handles belong to the platform, and TechCrunch said as much at the time (TechCrunch). But “allowed to” and “good look” aren’t the same thing. This was a company worth billions taking a handle someone had used for 16 years, and the thank-you was merch and a tour. The guy wanted the old bird sign as a keepsake and couldn’t even get that.

What makes the thread land in 2026 is the punchline: the same company now runs a marketplace that prices rare handles in the thousands to millions (TechCrunch). You don’t need a $40,000 figure to see the irony. And credit to Hwang, who handled the whole thing with more grace than most of us would. If anything, the viral version undersells how chill he was about it. Musk is never far from the timeline, whether it’s a Wired report on activists who say they plan to dox him or his public back-and-forth with Binance founder CZ, so expect this one to keep coming back.

The Background

Hwang is a San Francisco photographer and co-founder of Orange Photography (TechCrunch). He told NPR he usually goes by “GeneX” on newer platforms like Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky (NPR). The original thread was posted on X on Nov. 2, 2026 (@StarPlatinum_ on X).

Our hero image shows Musk at an event in Arizona in September 2025. For more of what’s blowing up online, check out Social Media Highlights, our internet culture coverage and the Zeitgeist section.