Twitter trials edit button

After (probably) years of furious pleas to Twitter’s customer service, the company will finally trial an edit button. 

Editable twets tweets 

Since Twitter first exploded onto the scene, one feature more than any other has been sorely missing: the edit button. You can keep your broadcasts, lists and spaces; the freedom to edit a poorly phrased tweet is the key to the premium Twitter experience we all crave.  

In a way surely even Mr. Dorsey himself could appreciate, the most active campaigns for the installation of an edit button have been in viral form. Underneath any tweet bearing a typo from a high-profile individual, it’s become a bit of a digital custom to see thousands of respondents replying, “Tweets, but editable”. Finally, they have their wish. 

A question of ethics 

But why so reluctant in the first place? Twitter’s shyness to the idea has always been that editable tweets are a guaranteed way for people to change their content after it has become popular. Let’s say someone tweets a message in support of a new piece of legislation, and that said tweet is shared by campaigners, only for the tweeter to change the original message to say something else entirely. Twitter isn’t a prank platform, but an edit function could quickly make it one. 

But we’re sure there are ways to overrule this, and Twitter’s brainboxes are already exploring safe ways to edit tweets. The company’s Vice-President revealed that the firm has been working on the button since last year, with safeguards like time limits, controls and transparency all whirling in the pool of ideas. 

And before the rumor mill starts up – no, the decision to add the button wasn’t Elon’s idea.