Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey today commented on the possibility of an edit button for tweets, suggesting Twitter is considering a feature that might let people go back and add clarifications or annotations to older tweets.
As shared by Recode, Dorsey said that right now, there's "no credible way" for people to "go back and clarify" their older tweets, a problem that Twitter wants to solve.
"How do we enable people to quickly go back or to any tweet, whether it be years back or today, and show that original tweet -- kind of like a quote retweet, a retweet with comment -- and to add some context and some color on what they might have tweeted or what they might have meant. By doing so you might imagine that the original tweet then would not have the sort of engagement around it. Like you wouldn't be able to retweet the original tweet, for instance. You would just show the clarification, you would be able to retweet the clarification, so it always carries around with it that context. That's one approach. Not saying that we are going to launch that but those are the sorts of questions we are going to ask."
Dorsey has been talking about adding some kind of edit feature to Twitter, something that most users on Twitter want, for months now, but no editing feature has materialized.
The clarification feature mentioned here isn't the type of editing option for typos and errors that people are hoping for, but it could let users add clarifications to tweets that will be seen by everyone, unlike a quoted tweet.
In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said that if the feature is created -- and it's not guaranteed -- that it would be tested with journalists and newsmakers, giving them a way to clear things up if something inaccurate or incomplete is tweeted.
Top Rated Comments
[LIST=1]
* Somebody tweets, "like/retweet this if you like puppies!"
* They get 50,000 likes and retweets.
* They edit the tweet to say, "like/retweet this if you like Hitler!"
* Then people get up-in-arms over all the celebrities / media-personalities / politicians / etc. who have now "liked Hitler". It shows up in all sorts of campaign ads, "my opponent likes Hitler! I have proof!".
Lots of room for all sorts of variations on this problem. Orrrrrrrrr you could just look at the tweet before hitting send, and make damn sure it really says what you meant.
Imo it’s not a good idea. Considering current news media consider mere tweets as facts and spin 140 characters of statement into whatever their agenda is, this editing can create havoc as the frequency of fake news will certainly skyrocket.