Tweets, But Editable twitter.com

Twitter Comms (capitalization, sic):

yes, we’ve been working on an edit feature since last year!

no, we didn’t get the idea from a poll 😉

we’re kicking off testing within @TwitterBlue Labs in the coming months to learn what works, what doesn’t, and what’s possible.

I guess there is a reason to pay for Twitter Blue.

Twitter’s “Head of Consumer Product” Jay Sullivan:

Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work.

Therefore, it will take time and we will be actively seeking input and adversarial thinking in advance of launching Edit. We will approach this feature with care and thoughtfulness and we will share updates as we go.

Twitter’s slow pace is sort of understandable. If it simply made it possible to change a tweet, it would not take long for people to update a popular tweet with millions of impressions from “retweet if you love puppies” to “retweet if you are a proud Klan member”, or turn it into some cryptocurrency scam. Given how media-focused Twitter is and its outsized effect on conversation, it is also possible that less scrupulous journalists would update breaking news tweets without acknowledging changes.

But, still, when this launches, it will be a true finally moment.