Operation Bluebird has opened early access to Twitter.now, a new social network that uses the Twitter name while remaining unaffiliated with X Corp. The startup says it is building a public conversation platform around trust signals and user-controlled feeds, even as X continues a legal fight over ownership of the Twitter trademarks.
The founding team includes former Twitter trademark counsel Stephen Coates. Operation Bluebird argues that X abandoned trademarks including “Twitter” and “Tweet” after rebranding the service, while X maintains that the marks remain protected and sued the startup in Delaware federal court in December 2025.
Twitter.now Adds User-Controlled Trust Filtering
Operation Bluebird says it is not trying to recreate the previous Twitter service. Instead, the company is developing a system called VERA that evaluates claims in posts, provides context and sources, and assigns trust signals that users can use to control what appears in their feeds.
The current Twitter.now site describes a planned Trust Dial that would let people hide posts below a chosen trust threshold. The company says the system is designed to reduce the reach of low-trust content rather than automatically deleting posts or banning accounts.
VERA remains under development, and the site describes its current presentation as illustrative. Operation Bluebird told TechCrunch that a future VERA 2.0 version is expected to give users more control over the minimum trust level of posts shown in their feeds.
Early Access Currently Costs $20
The service is still in testing, with early access priced at $20. Operation Bluebird says the payment gives users Founder status and is also intended to reduce bot activity during the platform’s initial rollout.
The company says its broader goal is to create a social network based on transparency and user choice rather than relying entirely on opaque recommendation systems. Its moderation policies prohibit categories including illegal content, child exploitation, threats, harassment, and scams, while the company says those rules will continue to develop as the platform grows.
X and Operation Bluebird Remain in a Trademark Dispute
X filed its lawsuit after Operation Bluebird petitioned to cancel several Twitter-related trademarks. X argues that the brand was never abandoned and remains widely recognized, while Operation Bluebird maintains that X relinquished the marks when it retired the Twitter identity.
The dispute remains unresolved. Operation Bluebird currently labels Twitter.now as independent from X Corp. while continuing to use the Twitter name during its early-access phase.
Featured image credits: twitter.now
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