Twitter Teases an Edit Function But Only if This Happens

In an effort to get more people to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic, social media giant Twitter has teased an edit function this week if everyone wears a mask.

Many users of the platform have wanted an edit feature for years but to no avail. Twitter has finally made a move to offer this function but it comes at a price. The company will allow users to edit their tweets when there is widespread adoption of face masks in the world.

Currently there is no way to edit a tweet once it has been published. You either have to delete it or roll with it.

Twitter tweeted on its main Twitter account Thursday saying: “You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask.”

Other social media platforms including Facebook and LinkedIn have allowed people to edit what they publish for years but Twitter hasn’t offered the feature.

In January, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said there were practical considerations that make the introduction of an edit button difficult.

“You might send a tweet and someone might retweet that and an hour later you might completely change the content of that tweet,” he said. “The person that retweeted the original tweet is now retweeting and rebroadcasting something that is completely different. So that’s something to watch out for.”

Dorsey also at one point told an audience at a Goldman Sachs event in San Francisco that Twitter was “thinking about” a feature that allowed people to go back and clarify or annotate old tweets.

“The other thing that we’re seeing more broadly within the culture right now in this particular moment is people quote-unquote ‘being canceled’ because of past things that they’ve said on Twitter or various other places in social media,” Dorsey said. “There’s no credible way to kind of go back and clarify or even have a conversation to show the learning and the transition since.”

It was in May that Dorsey pledged to donate $1 billion to support relief efforts for Covid-19 and other causes.

One Twitter user pointed out: “It’s practically impossible to make everyone wear a mask which means we won’t get an edit button.”

Disclaimer: We have no position in Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) and have not been compensated for this article.