It might be easy to forget sometimes, but Twitter technically no longer exists.
Last summer, Elon Musk changed the company’s name to “X.” Yes, Musk’s X’s main domain name is still Twitter.com. Yes, there are multiple official pages on the platform, which the company still calls “Twitter.” Yes, most people still call it “Twitter.” However, the official name of Musk’s social media platform is X.
On Monday, X appeared to be trying to encourage users to stop calling it Twitter and adopt the name X instead. user start noticed that post Viewed X via iOS Yes Change any refer to Automatically changes “Twitter.com” to “X.com”.
X user @___frye posted “Twitter .com” but on X’s iOS app it appears as “X .com”
Image source: Mashable screenshot
X’s Twitter network issues
Yes, you are not mistaken. If a user types in “Twitter.com,” they will see “Twitter.com” before clicking “Post.” However, once submitted, the platform will display “X.com” in the appropriate location on the X for iOS app to everyone viewing the post without the user’s permission.
Shortly after the news broke, it became clear there was another big problem: X is changing anything “X.com” ending in “Twitter.com”.
As of the publication of this article, the posts currently displayed on X’s website are as follows:
@Arcticstar0’s post and X’s website are shown below.
Image source: Mashable screenshot
Here is how the same article currently appears on X for iOS:
Here’s what the same @Arcticstar0 post looks like on X’s iOS app.
Image source: Mashable screenshot
Why is this a big deal
Let’s say someone owns the domain name “NetfliTwitter.com”. Why do they own the domain name? Because if X automatically changes anything containing “Twitter.com” to “X.com” then that means posting “NetfliTwitter.com” on movie streaming service). If a user clicks on the link text “Netflix.com” that appears in the post, they will actually be taken to “NetfliTwitter.com.” Because when X changes the text written by the user, the URL it links and directs is still the same as the one posted by the user.
This is a dream scenario for those looking to steal passwords through phishing campaigns.
X Example of changing “NetfliTwitter.com” to “Netflix.com”
Image source: Mashable screenshot
The example I just provided is not hypothetical either. Some users on X noticed the issue and found that it was quickly exploited by scammers, hackers, and other bad actors. X user @yuyu0127_ quickly registered the domain name “NetfliTwitter.com” to prevent it from being weaponized and placed a warning page on the URL about potential issues with X’s changes.
“This domain has been acquired to prevent it from being used for malicious purposes,” the headline text on “NetfliTwitter.com” reads.
A user tried to post “setwitter.com” and Twitter changed the text to “sex.com.”
Credit: @___Fry
Another domain “seTwitter.com” was also registered because it could potentially be exploited due to the way X would change the URL Viewed On the “sex.com” platform. The X user who registered the domain, @amasato_mochi, also posted a warning page to draw attention to the issue.
“Please be very careful not to visit suspicious URLs,” seTwitter.com wrote. “I will reserve this domain for a year to prevent any harm.”
Tweet may have been deleted
According to some users, the changes implemented by X also affected older posts. This means that any situation where someone previously tweeted to “Twitter.com” will be retroactively changed to “X.com”.
X eventually became aware of the issue and rolled out a patch later that day for some of the domains affected by the change. For example, “Netflitwitter.com” no longer appears as “Netflix.com.”
However, Mashable can confirm that the X for iOS app is still in Change Many other references to “X.com” from “Twitter.com”. We noticed that in one instance we found, a change occurred when “Twitter.com” was used in a subdomain of another URL.
It’s unclear whether the issue will eventually be fixed in this version as well. Changing the text in a user’s post without the user’s permission is obviously a bad idea. Regardless, the whole ordeal is certainly a huge setback for X, especially when Elon Musk’s social media platform itself still retweets “X.com” to “Twitter.com.”