- Twitter (sorry, X) has updated its terms of service (ToS), which are set to come into effect as of 29th September 2023.
- The ToS includes changes in terms of the branding of the platform, favouring X instead of Twitter.
- Tweets are also no longer part of X’s lexicon moving forward, with posts and reposts taking their place officially.
Tweets are part of the internet’s lexicon, but Elon Musk is out to change that for good.
This all started when Twitter was rebranded to X back in July of this year, and with said change, questions regarding terms like tweets began cropping up. In the weeks since the rebrand, X has been referring to tweets as posts, with retweets also changing to reposts, but now we now when these alterations will be made permanent.
This as X has outlined its latest terms of service (ToS), which touches on elements such as branding, as well as how it will be handling privacy on the platform, rights to content, and general use of the platform’s services.
“You are responsible for your use of the Services and for any Content you provide, including compliance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations. You should only provide Content that you are comfortable sharing with others,” the ToS explains.
“You retain your rights to any Content you submit, post or display on or through the Services. What’s yours is yours — you own your Content (and your incorporated audio, photos, and videos are considered part of the Content),” it adds.
As regards branding, instances of the words tweet and Twitter will not be used moving forward.
As The Verge has pointed out, some users are starting to get pop-up notifications highlighting the fact that tweets are not posts, along with a few other superficial glossary of terms changes.
That said, we are still encountering instances. You can for example plug in twitter.com into your browser’s search bar right now and be directed to the X platform. It is clear though, that Musk and co. are trying to do something about it, as when you type in x.com in your browser, you are redirected to the Twitter domain.
As such, while the company is clearly trying to pivot as quickly as it can to all things X, there will still be occasions where Twitter and tweets feature.
[Image – Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash]
