Operation Bluebird Launches Twitter.now, a New Social Network Reviving the Twitter Name

The platform, still in its early stage, currently has only hundreds of users. It looks and feels much like the old Twitter and its offshoots, with replies and retweets. Its most notable feature is an automated fact-checking tool called Vera, a Gemini-based "veracity engine for real-time analysis" that runs on every tweet. Co-founder Stephen Coates has been testing Vera by posting obviously false messages, such as "George Washington was our second president."

"Our first goal is to see if we can truly bring back a town square that's safer and less harmful," Coates said. "We say freedom of speech and not freedom of reach. We want people to say what they want, but we also want to create a platform that's not financially locked into that viral content that's harmful or inaccurate."

Operation Bluebird argues that Elon Musk effectively abandoned the Twitter brand and trademarks when he renamed the company X. X Corp. sued to stop the effort, but a federal judge tentatively ruled in April that X appeared to have relinquished rights to "tweet," the bird logo, and possibly "Twitter" itself, though no written ruling has been issued. Bluebird has taken that as enough of a green light to move forward while emphasizing that its new Twitter is not affiliated with X. "Operation Bluebird, Inc. picked up the name X Corp. walked away from and is rebuilding it on trust, in your browser at twitter.now," the company states on its website. "We are not X, and we are not affiliated with X Corp."