When this was initially announced I saw multiple people posting on Twitter how the the non-Musk version of the company would also occasionally take over short name accounts and give them to government officials and large corporations.
Some of the replies when @x and @music got transferred were also complaining about not being compensated monetarily, which honestly seems like a bizarre expectation. Elon paid $44 billion for the company already. Paying people for their accounts sets up a poor precedent if they decide to take over other accounts in the future, and determining the amount to pay seems arbitrary. However, maybe giving these people a free Blue subscription for some number of years, or even for life, would've been a good move since it encourages them to continue participating on the platform.
In 2015 twitter changed favorites to likes, but since the username "likes" was taken, the url to view your likes switched from twitter.com/favorites to twitter.com/i/likes (later on they changed it to twitter.com/username/likes)
I think it's similar to some users believing they have a right to privacy or a right to "their" data on platforms like Facebook. Use at your own risk because they're not free services; they have a profit motive by nature of what they are.
People gotta quit bitchin' about Twitter and just move to Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads or whatever. Bankruptcy is the one language that Elon Musk will understand and it's absolutely necessary because his behavior is contagious. Donald Trump set a precedent for him and Scott Adams, only their destruction will send a message this behavior is just not cool.
The thing about people is they'll whine and cry about how awful <anything> is but if it gives them convenient access to a dopamine hit they'll put up with whatever they're complaining about.
Putting your money where your mouth is and using your wallet as your vote are rare values to find in people anymore. Most people want cheap entertainment and they want it now.
I mean yes Elon doesn’t want to spend money. Whether he has to would be determined by a court, if the handle owners decided to sue for unfair trade practices or the like.
Some of the replies when @x and @music got transferred were also complaining about not being compensated monetarily, which honestly seems like a bizarre expectation. Elon paid $44 billion for the company already. Paying people for their accounts sets up a poor precedent if they decide to take over other accounts in the future, and determining the amount to pay seems arbitrary. However, maybe giving these people a free Blue subscription for some number of years, or even for life, would've been a good move since it encourages them to continue participating on the platform.