X owner Elon Musk has once again hijacked a rare coveted username from its original user.

This time, however, the takeover wasn’t for the good of X the company, it was so Musk could promote Donald Trump for president.

On Saturday, Musk appeared at Donald Trump’s rally in Butler Pennsylvania. However, earlier that day, Musk began promoting his pro-Trump Super PAC, called America PAC, using a brand new handle @America.

“Read @America to understand why I’m supporting Trump for President,” Musk’s new bio said as of approximately 1:30pm ET on Saturday, Oct. 5.

The @America handle appeared attached to a brand new account setup just this month, in October 2024. However, this rare, one-word geographic handle had already been long registered by another X user more than 14 years prior to Musk taking the handle from them, in September 2010.

According to a person familiar with the situation, X took the handle from the user much like how Musk’s social media company took the @X handle from its original registrant last year.

  • grue@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    After this, I don’t know what more proof anyone could possibly need that Xitter is purely a right-wing propaganda platform exactly equivalent to the likes of Truth [sic] Social. Anyone who continues to use Xitter supports this behavior. Continued use of accounts like @POTUS or @KamalaHarris or these is effectively an endorsement of equating Donald Trump with America. It has to stop! The platform has to be fully abandoned by every single person, organization, or government entity that isn’t fascist; there is no choice now.

    • ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com
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      2 months ago

      Yup, it’s the new fascist bar.

      Those non-fascist influencers, celebs, and other “must have” content sources for the remaining audience need to talk amongst themselves, decide on a new platform, and leave together. Their audience will see it, momentarily snap out of the inertia, download a new app, and barely notice the difference. Non-fascist politicians and news orgs who have to go to where the people are will have cover and can follow suit. It can be over in a week.