- Elon Musk painted over the W in Twitter's name on the sign outside its San Francisco headquarters.
- He said Twitter's landlord told the company the sign was legally required to read as "Twitter."
Elon Musk appears to really want the sign outside Twitter's San Francisco headquarters to say "Titter" — and he was ready to have some paintwork done to make it happen.
In a tweet Sunday, the social-media platform's CEO posted a picture of the sign with the W painted over in white so it would blend in with the background.
Musk wrote in his caption: "Our landlord at SF HQ says we're legally required to keep sign as Twitter & cannot remove 'w', so we painted it background color. Problem solved!"
—Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 10, 2023
Musk's scheme to change the "Twitter" sign to "Titter" appears to have been in the works for a few days, according to photos of the building uploaded to the platform by several Twitter users.
On Thursday, William LeGate, an entrepreneur and programmer, tweeted a picture of the sign with the W obscured.
"Elon Musk, in a remarkable show of maturity, has removed the W from Twitter's logo outside their San Francisco HQ," LeGate's caption said.
—LeGate (@williamlegate) April 6, 2023
The building's landlord, SRI Nine Market Square LLC, did not immediately respond to a query on why the initial alteration was unacceptable and whether the painted-over signage would be allowed.
Musk has made several drastic changes to the company's San Francisco headquarters since he took over Twitter. In January, he tried to sell hundreds of things from the office to boost income for Twitter, like kitchen appliances, Twitter sculptures, furniture, and even office plants.
In December, Twitter cut janitorial services in the headquarters, which forced employees to bring their own toilet paper to the office.
The disagreements over the Twitter sign are the latest in the longstanding feud between Musk and the building's landlord. SRI sued the Musk-owned Twitter in January. The lawsuit accused Twitter of not paying rent of roughly $3.4 million a month in December and January for the headquarters' Market Street premises.
Separately, Musk has been tinkering with Twitter's interface. Last week, Musk replaced Twitter's bird logo with the Shiba Inu — or doge — meme. Following this change, the price of the cryptocurrency that Musk supports, called dogecoin, soared 20%.
Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.