Is Twitter back? Ex-employee fights to revive the blue bird
Is Twitter back? A startup including former Twitter staffer Stephen Coates launched a new platform this week, giving users early access to a “reclaimed” social media platform and the chance to take the fight to Elon Musk.
To paraphrase a famous saying, "Twitter is dead. Long live Twitter."
A new social network that looks like Twitter, works a bit like Twitter — and is also called Twitter — has just launched, in defiance of a lawsuit from Elon Musk's X.
Virginia-based startup Operation Bluebird, founded by, among others, original Twitter former general counsel and board member Stephen Coates, launched Twitter.now this week.
Coates made the announcement on LinkedIn, saying, “Get over your X. The bird is back.”
In his message he also made clear that Twitter.now "is not an attempt to recreate the old platform," but a service that allows users to decide what kind of content reaches their feeds, based on the principle of "freedom of speech, not freedom of reach".
The campaign to restore Twitter in some form, said Coates, followed Elon Musk’s takeover, rebrand and redesign of the popular social media platform as X.
“There was a place where the whole world came to talk. The richest man alive bought it, and broke it. We're a small team taking Twitter back — rebuilt on trust,” reads the landing page of the website.
The campaign began when Operation Bluebird filed a petition to the US Patent and Trademark Office in December 2025, seeking cancellation of X’s “Twitter” and “tweet” trademarks.
They argued that X had abandoned the trademarks after removing the Twitter branding and replacing it with X, and simultaneously applied for their own Twitter trademark.
The startup was subsequently sued by Musk’s X in an attempt to prevent them from launching the social media platform and accused Operation Bluebird of copyright infringement.
The startup successfully argued that X had let go of the trademarks like “Twitter” and “Tweet” in a US District Court, with Judge Colm Connolly issuing a tentative ruling indicating that X may have abandoned the intellectual property claims, presenting Operation Bluebird with an opportunity to go ahead with their plans.
Join 'the fight' against Musk
The new Twitter is currently at an early access stage, offering people the opportunity to sign up as “founders’ for $20 (€17) to help build and test the platform, and secure popular handles ahead of time.
The platform's homepage makes clear that the launch is a direct response to Elon Musk's changes to the original Twitter, with members also encouraged to pay $40 (€34) to join "the fight" — the startup's ongoing legal battle against X.
The website describes it as a “David & Goliath” battle pitting a small team against “the richest man alive,” as the startup defends its right to launch and operate. X maintains that millions of users still use the old Twitter URL to reach X and still refer to posts on their platform as “Tweets”.
A key element for the new platform is transparency and credibility. The startup is introducing a feature that allows users to “set the dial” on how much “trusted” and “low trust” content and sources appear on their feed.
How trust is determined has not been revealed, but the website states that it will run according to “the Birdhouse Constitution and Community Guidelines”.
The company also states that it aims to prohibit illegal content, child exploitation, threats of violence, harassment, scams and other harmful conduct, with policies evolving as the platform grows.
This is in response to widespread claims that X has failed to uphold the platform’s original values, with many dissatisfied users — estimated at 33 million globally — opting for alternatives that they view as more reliable or useful.
