Twitter has revealed that it is working on a feature that would allow users to modify tweets after they have been published.
It comes after Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla and a new board member, surveyed his Twitter followers on whether they wanted the feature. Many people have been asking for an edit button for a long time, however there are concerns about how to implement it.
Twitter has stated that the concept would be tried in the next months. “Now that everybody is enquiring, we’ve been working on an edit function since last year!” tweeted the company’s communications team.
Users that sign up for Twitter Blue, the platform’s subscription service, get first access to beta features. An edit option enables users to correct errors or typos in a tweet without losing any existing reactions, retweets, or likes.
“Edit can be used to interfere with the public record if there are no time constraints or information about what was modified,” he stated. “As we embark on this mission, our first obligation is to safeguard the integrity of that public conversation.” Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated in 2018 that the functionality will “probably never” be implemented due to worries about transparency.
Jay Sullivan, the company’s vice president of consumer products, said it was “the most requested Twitter feature for many years” in a post on Tuesday.
He did remark, though, that the company was looking into methods to “safely” expand the capabilities.
However, two other social networking platforms, Facebook and Instagram, already allow users to edit their posts, and Twitter’s new CEO, Parag Agrawal, appears to be open to the idea.
On Monday, Elon Musk launched a poll after announcing that he owned 9.2% of Twitter, making him the company’s largest shareholder.
On Tuesday, he was elected to the Twitter board of directors.
The survey has already received almost four million votes. Twitter said on April 1 that it was testing an edit button, but this was widely misconstrued as an April Fool’s joke. According to Twitter, the firm was already working on an edit button before Elon Musk was joined to the board of directors.
Tesla’s CEO, on the other hand, appears to have sped up the process.
Mr Musk appears to base his real-life decisions on Twitter polls, which are notoriously unscientific.
In November of last year, he asked his 80 million followers if he should sell 10% of his Tesla shares. According to the study, he should, and he did.
Mr Musk’s poll on whether or not Twitter should have an edit button is being taken seriously by Twitter’s CEO. “The survey’s findings will have far-reaching consequences. It’s fair to suppose that Twitter will try to change its policy in this area as a consequence of the study.
Mr Musk has established a sizable Twitter following in a matter of hours, and he appears to be giving his followers a say in whatever tactic he pursues.
