Twitter is Working on an Edit Button for Real
Twitter on Wednesday said it was finally working on a edit feature, the "most requested" feature for the microblogging site.
The edit button, a divisive topic among Twitter users, has been long requested to simplify fixing errors such as typos without deleting the tweet, while some users said it could be prone to abuse.
"Now that everyone is asking… yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!" Twitter Comms said in a tweet.
Twitter said it didn't get an idea from a poll. Its largest stakeholder, Elon Musk, asked in a tweet if netizens wanted an edit button. Some 73% of 4.4 million who answered the poll said yes.
Twitter will begin testing its edit button in the coming months, its head of consumer product Jay Sullivan said in a tweet.
While it could be used to fix mistakes, typos, and hot takes, it could also be prone to misuse and "alter the record of the public conversation."
"It will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit. We will approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go," Sullivan said.
Its former CEO Jack Dorsey said in a January 2020 interview with WIRED that Twitter started as SMS text messaging service, wherein when a text is sent, it cannot be taken back.
While Twitter made practical considerations, he said "we'll probably never do it."
"You might send a tweet then retweet, and then someone might retweet that and then an hour later you completely change the content of that tweet and that person that retweeted the original tweet is now re-tweeting and re-broadcasting something completely different, so that's something to watch out for."
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