No joke: Twitter has confirmed that it is working on an editing feature that will allow users to tweak their tweets after posting. The social media platform initially reported the news via a one-line tweet on April 1, but it was widely interpreted as an April Fool’s gag (when asked about the importance of the post, it didn’t help, Twitter’s response at the time was: “We can confirm or deny”). No, but we can edit our statement later “). On Tuesday, the communications team tweeted that the company had actually been developing the feature since last year – and a glance at new board member Elon Musk said the idea did not come from a poll.
Musk, who became the company’s largest shareholder earlier this week, asked users in a survey: “Do you want an edit button?” The survey found that about 74% of the 4.4 million respondents were in favor. And Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, of course, is taking it seriously, encouraging people to “vote carefully.”
Do you want an edit button?
– Elon Musk (lonelonmusk) April 5, 2022
The outcome of this vote will be important. Vote carefully. https://t.co/UDJIvznALB
– Pollen Agarwal (8 Parga) April 5, 2022
Now everyone is asking …
Yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!
No, we didn’t get the idea from a poll
We’re starting the experiment inside TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t and what is possible.
– Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) April 5, 2022
J. Sullivan, head of consumer products at Twitter, also tweeted about the test, saying the company was “exploring how to create an editing feature in a secure way since last year.” He noted that editing has been the most requested feature for many years, but that “edits can be misused to change the record of public conversations, without issues such as timeliness, control and transparency about what has been edited.” Protecting the integrity of public discourse is our highest priority. “
An editing feature will allow users to correct mistakes, typo and hot tech without losing comments, retweets or likes. A post has already been submitted. Currently, users need to delete and retweet any changes they want to make.
1 / We’ve been exploring how to create an editing feature in a secure way since last year and plan to start testing it in the meantime. TwitterBlue Lab next month. We’re sharing some more insights on how to think about editing. Https://t.co/WbcfkUue8e
– J. Sullivan (Jesulivan) April 5, 2022
We are working on an edit button
– Twitter (Twitter) April 1, 2022
