X Begins Selling Defunct Usernames For Up To $50K

November 4, 2023 Business, Social Media

X appears to have begun ramping up efforts to sell disused user handles, kicking off a program previously signaled by billionaire owner Elon Musk. A team within the company, known as the @Handle Team, has begun work on a handle marketplace for the purchase of account names left unused by the people who originally registered them.

In at least some cases, X/Twitter has emailed solicitations to potential buyers requesting a flat fee of $50,000 to initiate a purchase. As early as November 2022, Musk posted on the social media site that a “vast number” of handles had been taken by “bots and trolls” and that he planned to start “freeing them up next month.”

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Scoop: Elon Musk’s X has begun selling defunct usernames for as much as $50,000, per emails obtained by @Forbes.

A dedicated “@ handle” team is overseeing the new marketplace, which was rumored to be in the works for months.https://t.co/5Gj6py5MEC

— Alex Konrad (@alexrkonrad) November 4, 2023