Twitter announced Tuesday it will soon start experimenting with an edit button, but only on its monthly subscription service at first.

The inability to tweak tweets after firing them off has been a key complaint among users of the one-to-many messaging platform.

Word that the company would start testing an edit feature on Twitter Blue came after newly-named board member Elon Musk conducted an online poll.

In a tweet, Musk asked if people wanted an edit button at Twitter. Nearly 4.4 million votes were cast, some 73 percent of them saying "yes."

"Now that everyone is asking... yes, we've been working on an edit feature since last year," Twitter posted on its communications account.

"No, we didn't get the idea from a poll," it added, poking fun at the Tesla boss.

According to Jay Sullivan, the company's head of consumer product, "Edit" has been the most requested Twitter feature "for many years."

"People want to be able to fix (sometimes embarrassing) mistakes, typos and hot takes in the moment. They currently work around this by deleting and tweeting again," Sullivan said in a tweet-thread.

The San Francisco-based internet firm said it will kick off testing in coming months to figure out what works when it comes to letting users tinker with posts after they have gone live.

Twitter Blue lets people pay a monthly subscription fee of $3 to access special content or features.

Blue is available on the Twitter application for Apple or Android smartphones in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, according to the company.

Twitter also announced Tuesday that Musk will join its board, boosting hopes the eccentric entrepreneur will lift the social media company's prospects -- although some observers expressed wariness of the billionaire's influence.

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal called Musk "a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need," while Musk said he looked forward to soon making "significant improvements to Twitter."

Musk, who also leads the SpaceX venture and is the world's richest man, on Monday had announced his purchase of 73.5 million Twitter shares, or 9.2 percent of the company's common stock.

Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter who stepped down as CEO last year, had long opposed an "edit" button on the basis that users could change a tweet that had already been widely shared, changing its meaning or context.

Sullivan addressed those concerns in his posts.

"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," he said, adding that that company's top priority is "protecting the integrity of that public conversation."

He noted that "it will take time" to develop the "Edit" feature and the company will be "actively seeking input and adversarial thinking" in advance of its launch.

gc/jh/des

GOOGLE

TESLA MOTORS

Related Links
Satellite-based Internet technologies

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

Hackers got user data from Meta with forged request
San Francisco (AFP) March 31, 2022
Facebook owner Meta gave user information to hackers who pretended to be law enforcement officials last year, a company source said Wednesday, highlighting the risks of a measure used in urgent cases. Imposters were able to get details like physical addresses or phone numbers in response to falsified "emergency data requests," which can slip past privacy barriers, said the source who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter. Criminal hackers have been compromising email accounts ... read more