Twitter Unveils an Edit Button, Finally

Twitter didn’t budge.

The company argued that there was something noble in leaving mistakes on display. A nefarious user could change a tweet after it had already been shared widely, swapping a benign message for a misleading one. Someone who had retweeted a statement might miss the update, inadvertently broadcasting a tweet that the person no longer agreed with.

But more recently, Twitter began reconsidering an edit button as it tried to expand its service by attracting people who might be more careful with their words.

In 2020, Twitter rolled out Fleets, an ephemeral feature that deleted users’ posts after 24 hours. That didn’t catch on and was axed. This week, the company introduced Circles, a feature that lets people post messages to a smaller subset of 150 followers.

Maybe letting people correct their mistakes might reduce their stage fright, too.

“We’re hoping that with the availability of Edit Tweet, tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful,” Twitter said in a statement. “You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you.”

The edit button will be granted to Twitter’s employees first for internal testing, and then to users of its subscription service, Twitter Blue. The company eventually — though it did not specify when — plans to give all users the option to alter their tweets.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/01/technology/twitter-edit-button.html