Twitter is making an unexpected return with a new social platform launched by Stephen Coates, a former Twitter trademark counsel. Branded Twitter.now, the startup—dubbed Operation Bluebird—revives the familiar name, logo, and blue bird that disappeared when Elon Musk rebranded the platform as X in 2023.
The platform, introduced in late August, is currently in early testing. Coates says the project is not simply a recreation of Twitter but an effort to rethink social media moderation. The timing is deliberate: when Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, he retired the brand identity, including the blue bird and the vocabulary of “tweets.”
Operation Bluebird argues that by abandoning the Twitter identity, X also forfeited trademark rights tied to “Twitter” and “tweet.” That claim is now being tested in court. Seeking to claim the brand for itself, startup Operation Bluebird filed a petition with the US Patent and Trademark Office in December 2025 to cancel X’s “Twitter” and “tweet” trademarks on the grounds of abandonment.
X countered with a lawsuit alleging trademark and copyright infringement to halt Operation Bluebird’s adoption of the Twitter name. For Coates, however, the dispute represents a cause larger than merely restoring a recognisable trademark.
Trust score
Rebuilding around user-centric moderation, Twitter relies on its VERA AI to analyse posts, verify facts, link sources, and calculate trust scores. Rather than enforcing one universal set of rules, the platform lets individuals set their own thresholds for sensitive or misleading content.
This reflects Coates’ view on speech versus reach—users are free to post legal content, but the algorithm isn’t required to amplify it. By making moderation a personal setting, the startup is leveraging the enduring cultural power of the original Twitter brand to lure back users seeking a familiar experience.
Whether it can legally keep that identity is another question.
