Twitter is working on adding a new feature that would allow users to amend their messages after publication.
It appears like Twitter is working on an edit button, which has been absent from their platform for quite some time. What better way to reveal this news than after having one of its major shareholders run a poll about it recently?
It just so happens that these two events are related - so don’t worry! They tell us there’s no reason anybody should be suspicious or alarmed about what transpired today, with Elon Musk voting his view right off-screen.
Many people have been discussing over whether or not there should be a “edit button” on Twitter. The idea is that if you make modifications to your tweet, everyone else who views at the same time will see those alterations in real-time and know what goes into making one person’s opinions distinct from another.
The utility of the edit button should center on the perimetres of clearing up embarrassing mistakes and broken links. As social-media managers, we’ve all been there, and in that sense, it’s long time. Hence, restricting adjustments within a small time span allows companies flexibility without inciting dread among consumers over essential factual changes to the original article farther down the road. After all, most individuals identify problems within the first 60 seconds of publishing anyhow. The purpose is one and the same—to maintain the integrity of what is being stated online.
Prerna Pant, co-founder, Radarr
It would be a terrific tool for someone with rapid fingers since you can quickly repair typos and grammatical issues without losing a Tweet’s response and interaction. On the other side, Twitter has always operated as a town square where global dialogues happen spontaneously and honestly—it’s a public record of a business or user’s viewpoint. Brands have had to defend themselves the most vehemently on Twitter, evaluate their intentions and articulate their purpose to be. Altering that public record may be a slippery slope, so Twitter would need to investigate retaining different timelines or showing modifications to safeguard why people use Twitter in the first place.
Arthur Altounian, VP, client strategy and growth, APAC, INCA