New bright, pulsating ‘X’ sign at Twitter HQ shines into San Francisco apartments, angers residents

SAN FRANCISCO — Elon Musk has angered some living near Twitter, or X headquarters. Friday night the company unveiled their new X logo on top of the building by turning the lights of that X on. In the process, those lights beamed right into nearby apartments.

Videos posted to social media show the pulsating X light which has become the talk of San Francisco’s Mid-Market neighborhood.

“It is pretty annoying from my perspective,” said Jessica Xu who lives across the street.

The X, which sits atop Twitter headquarters, signifies Twitters rebrand and name change to X. The light was said to be off Saturday night, but was on Friday night and some residents from the buildings across the street were not so happy about it.

VIDEO: ‘X’ logo installed atop Twitter building, spurring San Francisco to investigate permit violation

“I think it’s way too bright! It was flashing directly into my apartment and just lit up my entire place,” said Xu.

“Too bright yeah. I would say too bright,” said Viet Huynh who lives across the street.

“From below, we were walking our dog and saw it and were like, oh wow what a spectacle and then we get upstairs and we see like the ramifications of it and it is so bright and ridiculous,” said Jennifer Freeman.

Twitter, or X’s Elon Musk posted video showing the X all lit up.

City officials say they’ve opened an investigation into the sign saying, “A building permit is required to make sure the sign is structurally sound and installed safely. Planning review and approval is also necessary for the installation of this sign. The City is opening a complaint and initiating an investigation.”

MORE: ‘The everything app’: What Musk’s rebranding of Twitter to X could mean for future of his companies

Sunday, the Twitter letters were completely removed from the sign, leaving just the X.

Tech analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group says the change doesn’t do any good for the social media platform.

“This is probably one of the worst times to do a brand change, a name change because they were having trouble retaining customers, and whenever you change the identity of a company you’re going to lose a certain amount of customers as a result of the name change,” said Enderle.

But Musk and X have their strong supporters even with this bright light.

“He’s playing chess with City Hall. I love what he’s doing. I think it’s great, like I said he’s a showman, he’s going to turn the light down at night, it’s going to be very subtle but everybody is talking San Francisco now. I love that!” said Dee Dee Damn.

MORE: Elon Musk says Twitter has ‘negative cash flow’ and ‘heavy debt’

And while some say yes the light was bright Friday, they’re just dealing with it.

“I got curtains, I got blackout curtains,” said CJ Randolph.

For those that don’t have the black out curtains –

“We were in the living room and we could see it flashing from the bedroom and I was like, what is that and I was like, oh no it’s that big X we saw outside,” said Freeman.

Yes, the gig X, the one that everyone seemed to be taking pictures of on Sunday, wondering what will come next.

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