The sign was put up at the firm's San Francisco base on Friday and cast a powerful strobe light over nearby buildings at night.

Building inspectors had been investigating and said 24 people complained about the structure over the weekend, raising concerns over its structural safety and illumination.

They said officials had been denied access to the roof to inspect the sign, with the necessary permit and planning approvals apparently not in place.

Elon Musk proudly tweeted a bird's eye video of the sign on Saturday, with the X emitting a piercing white light and appearing about two storeys high.

Neighbours trying to escape its garish glow were likely breathing a sign of relief on Monday when pictures showed the X had disappeared from its spot on the roof.

It's not the company's only building hiccup recently.

Last week, work to remove a Twitter logo from the side of the building was paused by police - again over concerns about permits and permissions - leaving it temporarily reading "er".

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It's all part of Elon Musk's controversial rebranding effort as he tries to hammer home the company's change of name from Twitter to X.

He wants to make X "the everything app" and expand it to cater for a broad range of users' online needs in the mould of China's ubiquitous WeChat.