Twitter has resisted adding the ability to edit tweets for years, even though it’s been the feature most requested by users, including who will be owners. Elon Musk. Former CEO Jack Dorsey said in 2020 that the company would probably never introduce an edit button, explaining that doing so would spoil the “vibration”“From the early days of Twitter as an SMS messaging service.
Experts have repeatedly pointed out that the ability to edit tweets can allow bad actors to rewrite history and spread misinformation, even when the entire tweet history is available.
For example, harmless but viral tweets can easily be edited to show misinformation or hate speech later on, and even if previous versions of that tweet do show up, that’s not the case. necessarily means people will look at them. In theory, an edit button would also make popular users whose tweets attract the attention of many people, making them even greater targets for hacking, if the bad guys know that the tweet is secure. has a large audience.
Users will be warned that tweets have been edited by an icon, timestamp and label, which Twitter speak designed to make it clear that the original message was modified within half an hour of being sent. Tweets can be edited “several times” within that timeframe, and a log of how the tweet has been changed will be displayed when someone taps the label.
Twitter has acknowledged that people may misuse the feature and said it is testing that possibility. Konstantinos Komaitis, an expert on internet policy, says it could be an attempt to downplay.
“Depending on how Twitter decides to design this, it can help people who make typos and nothing else with it, or it can actually change, I believe, the entire public discourse. and how we interact and share knowledge,” he said.
Giving users an edit button could also be interpreted as a handy distraction from the deeper issues the platform is dealing with: the upcoming legal conflict with Musk, rights issues. the apparent privacy and security that the former head of security turned accuser Peiter “Mudge” Zatko, and the ongoing concerns about its deep-rooted ability to curb trolls, speech hate and other malicious behavior. An edit button does nothing to solve these problems.
Komaitis points out that warning users that a tweet has been edited will be essential to minimize the potential for abuse, using the example of someone tweeting a photo of a cute dog. to generate positive feedback and then swap it for a picture of Hitler.
