Virginia-based startup Operation Bluebird is rolling out a new social media site under the Twitter name despite a pending legal fight with X over the brand.

Operation Bluebird launched Twitter.now this week despite an ongoing legal battle with Elon Musk’s X Corporation over who has rights to the name, logo, and related trademarks, as Ars Technica reports. The new platform, which is currently restricted to a small number of users, reportedly looks much like the Twitter of old, with similar features such as replies and retweets, along with an added fact-checking tool.

The startup’s website states that it picked up the name that X Corp abandoned and is rebuilding the platform independently, emphasizing that it has no affiliation with X Corp.

Operation Bluebird cofounder Stephen Coates, who reportedly served as Twitter’s general counsel before Musk’s takeover and now holds the same position at the startup, argues that when Musk purchased Twitter in 2022 then rebranded the site as X the following year, he essentially abandoned Twitter’s intellectual property.

According to Ars Technica, X Corporation sued Operation Bluebird late last year after the startup began pursuing the trademarks, asking a federal judge in Delaware to block it from launching a new social network under the Twitter name. 

In April 2026, US District Court Judge Colm Connolly tentatively indicated that X appeared to have relinquished rights to the word “tweet,” the Twitter bird logo, and potentially the name “Twitter” itself but hasn’t yet issued a written order. Coates said the company considered the judge’s comments sufficient to move forward. 

Ars Technica reports that the site remains small for now, but it includes one significant departure from the original Twitter: an automated fact-checking system called Vera. The Gemini-based tool analyzes every post in real time for accuracy, and Coates has been testing it by deliberately posting false claims to see how the system responds.

“We say freedom of speech and not freedom of reach,” Coates told Ars, explaining that the company wants users to be able to say what they want while avoiding the financial incentives that can amplify harmful or inaccurate content.

The legal battle remains ongoing. Trademark attorney Josh Gerben told Ars Technica that Operation Bluebird may have a viable argument that X abandoned the Twitter trademark, but warned that launching the site significantly raises the stakes of the dispute and could prompt another legal response from X Corporation.

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