Twitter is Working on an Edit Feature

Twitter Edit feature

Twitter has finally confirmed that it’s working on an Edit feature, which has been a top-requested feature for many years. The company said yesterday that the Edit feature has been in development since last year and that it will start being tested as a “Labs” feature for Twitter Blue subscribers.

Last week, Twitter actually announced the upcoming Edit feature on April Fools’ day, which was pretty much the worst moment to announce such a feature. A lot has happened since then with Elon Musk becoming the biggest Twitter shareholder and getting a seat on the company’s board of directors.

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The same Musk also did a poll on Twitter yesterday to ask his followers if they wanted an Edit button, and the result was a 73.6% amount of yes for 4,4 million votes. Twitter joked in its announcement for the Edit feature that “we didn’t get the idea from a poll.”

Jay Sullivan, Head of Consumer Product at Twitter explained that the company will “approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness” so that its users can’t abuse it for misinformation purposes. “Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work,” the exec said.

Sullivan did also confirm was the ability to edit tweets has been “the most requested Twitter feature for many years,” and hinted that other changes are in the pipeline for the social network. “This is just one feature we are exploring as we work to give people more choice and control over their Twitter experience, foster a healthy conversation, and help people be more comfortable on Twitter,” the exec tweeted yesterday.

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Conversation 7 comments

  • dallasnorth40

    Premium Member
    06 April, 2022 - 9:48 am

    <p>Yeah, the poll is why they are announcing it now.</p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    06 April, 2022 - 9:53 am

    <p>That sounds like it is going to be a difficult one to balance. Transparency of the edit is one thing, but all the likes and supporting answers before the edit is made?</p><p><br></p><p>"Wow, that new Marvel film was brilliant"</p><p>(hundreds of replies confirming your post, thousands of likes)</p><p>Edit post: "Ethnic cleansing is the way to go!"</p><p><br></p><p>Just taking a very extreme example off the top of my head. Even with some edit transparency, all those people who liked or replied positively are going to feel used and possibly open to abuse, if they are now seen to be supporting a very negative message.</p>

    • iAlrakis

      Premium Member
      06 April, 2022 - 11:19 am

      <p>Agree, that’s probably why there wasn’t an edit option to start with.</p><p><br></p>

    • dftf

      06 April, 2022 - 2:29 pm

      <p>@wright_is: YES! This is <em>exactly</em> the same point I always think of.</p><p><br></p><p>What is to stop somebody putting <strong>I love puppies</strong>, getting something like 73 likes, 202 retweets and so-on, only to later edit it to <strong>I support Russia, not Ukraine</strong>.</p><p><br></p><p>This could really be dangerous, were a leading politician to re-tweet the original Tweet, along with a message like "I couldn’t agree more" or "Hard to disagree" or similar!</p>

  • mi1984

    06 April, 2022 - 2:48 pm

    <p>Well couldn’t you just add a function that takes the edited tweet and creates a new one, then deletes the old tweet and call it edit. even though you can already do yhat manually. That would stop the complaints</p>

  • mi1984

    06 April, 2022 - 2:54 pm

    <p>or bury the edited tweet so even less people will see it and even less will read it</p>

  • lezmaka

    Premium Member
    07 April, 2022 - 12:29 pm

    <p>So Twitter is going to get an edit button before this place does? lol</p>

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