Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed that he is considering adding an ‘edit’ button which would allow users to fix typos in their tweets – but the idea has been the subject of a long-running (and heated) debate on the platform.
Speaking at an event in New Delhi, Dorsey said the company had to consider how people would actually be using an edit button, acknowledging that some people may want to use it to edit old tweets in order to appear to have said (or not said) something controversial.
“A lot of people want the edit button because they want to quickly fix a mistake they made. Like a misspelling or tweeting the wrong URL. That’s a lot more achievable than allowing people to edit any tweet all the way back in time,” Dorsey said.
The Twitter boss admitted that the lack of an edit button was something a lot of users saw as a “friction in the service” and said it was something he had been thinking about “for a while,” but added that it would take time to figure out. “We can’t just rush it out. We can’t make something which is distracting or takes anything away from the public record,” he said.
Twitter users have been debating the potential merits of an edit button for months – a debate which has elicited some very strong feelings on both sides. Some believe an edit button is an obvious feature to add and one which would be the answer to all of their Twitter woes.
Others, however, are worried that an edit button would take away from “the whole point of Twitter” by allowing anyone to make changes to tweets that might otherwise get them in trouble.
However, some have suggested that an edit button might be acceptable with some caveats, like a time limit for editing, the inability to edit old tweets, and some sort of public indication that a tweet has been altered.
But then, what about retweets? Many prolific tweeters are also concerned that they could perhaps retweet something they agreed with, only for the original tweeter to trick them by changing the entire meaning a few minutes later. For example, imagine the horror, one user suggested, of ‘I love dogs’ turning into ‘I love Trump.’
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Source : RT - Daily news
Twitter might be about to add an ‘edit’ button for typos – and users have strong feelings about it
Twitter might be about to add an ‘edit’ button for typos – and users have strong feelings about it