The function of editing a tweet, a veritable Arlesian since the genesis of Twitter, will finally become a reality. The social network has decided to test it with its employees and some premium subscribers.
Across all social networks, the feature to edit a tweet after it was originally posted was probably the most commented, desired, feared. It was also part of the promises of Elon Musk, from the not so distant time when the businessman wanted to buy the microblogging platform. Twitter has always defended itself against any interference from Musk in its agenda and claims to have been developing an editing feature in its corner for a few years. Today, Twitter says it is ready to deploy it.
An option for employees and premium subscribers
The bluebird network announced Thursday that employees were internally testing the ability to edit a tweet shortly after it was posted. The feature will expand this month to subscribers of Twitter’s premium service, called Twitter Blue, first in New Zealand, then in Australia, Canada and the United States. Twitter took the opportunity to communicate on this subject: “If you see an edited Tweet, it’s because we’re testing the edit button. It’s happening and you’ll be fine”.
if you see an edited Tweet it’s because we’re testing the edit button
this is happening and you’ll be okay
—Twitter (@Twitter) September 1, 2022
But beware, as we explained in a previous article, Twitter does not intend to grant full editing rights. Tweets can only be edited for the first 30 minutes after posting, and they’ll have a warning when they’ve been edited. It will also be possible to consult the first version of the tweet.
The legitimate fear of misinformation
Despite these precautions, the announcement sparked an outcry, particularly among those who fight or analyze disinformation on social networks. Many of them believe that the 30-minute period is far too long when we know that certain viral tweets reach tens of thousands of users in just a few minutes.
The hacker and cybersecurity specialist Baptiste Robert, who has already appeared in our columns, shares this verdict : “From now on, I won’t retweet again. If I want to share something, I’ll screenshot the tweet. The retweet will be too ‘dangerous’ if editing is possible”. Others point to easy-to-implement stratagems, such as announcing exclusive and high-potential information before modifying the tweet to make it phishing.
It remains to be seen whether Twitter will increase the scope of this test phase and offer the function to all Twitter users.