The rebrand of Twitter to X isn’t just a headline; it’s a costly misstep for the company. The decline in the fortunes of Twitter / X (its market value is estimated to have fallen by over 70% since it was acquired, as reported in The Guardian) has a lot to do with perceptions of Elon Musk.  But it is also linked to the change in brand too.  Critically, the change to “X” has simply failed to gain traction, with almost every reference to “X” being qualified by the mention of “formerly Twitter”.  So, all the equity that was previously held by Twitter, which was considerable, has been needlessly thrown away on a whim. The rebrand to X has involved more than just a name change. Perceptions of the social media platform are evolving – arguably for the worse – in line with changed rules of engagement. For example, moves to relax content moderation in line with Musk’s free speech principles are having an adverse effect on advertiser retention (as reported by the Financial Times), and in return impacting X’s reputation and revenue.