After years and years of the internet asking for it, Twitter is finally adding an edit feature to their global echo chamber.
Twitter confirmed in a tweet – how original – that they’ve been working on the feature since last year. They also noted that it had nothing to do with a poll that had recently been trending on the platform.
The poll they refer to is the one made by their now largest stakeholder Elon Musk who recently spent $3.3 billion on a 9.2% passive stake in Twitter. This is not a surprise for one of the platform’s biggest trolls.
Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022
After 4.4 million votes, almost 74% of users want the edit feature. If you think about it, and I always do, there are 217 million daily active users, so only 1.5% of them voted for the ability to edit. Your move, Elon!
Regardless of the maths, Twitter announced that, in the coming months, the new edit feature would be introduced to Twitter Blue Labs to see what works, what doesn’t, and what needs to be changed before making it public.
For those curious, Twitter Blue is the monthly subscription model at $4.49 within Twitter that gives subs access to a range of premium features like platform customisation, ad-free articles, bookmark folders, etc.
While the general idea sounds like a good plan, some of the platform’s users are worried about its risks. Account Everday Astronaut said in a tweet:
“Under two conditions. It’s only available for a few minutes, 5-10 mins. And when an edit is made, there’s a small link that shows the edit. This keeps a public record but allows the tweeter the ability to fix a simple mistake and not re-notify their followers with a new tweet.”
Going through the comments, some are worried about celebrities no longer being held accountable for past tweets. The first example that comes to mind is James Gunn being cancelled for their past tweets on very delicate topics.
As long as tweets are highlighted as being edited, then I think the internet is safe. As safe as the internet can be.
