Twitter ‘Edit’ button: Where & how the demand arose for it, how Facebook solved it

New Delhi: Tesla CEO and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk sparked a meme fest on Twitter on Tuesday, after he started a poll for ‘Edit Button’ on the microblogging site. This also sparked a debate with many supporting his proposal while other straightaway dismissing it as untenable & flawed.

Was it an April Fool’s day joke?

‘Edit Button’ on the microblogging site has been a long pending demand of users as this would enable them to correct the glaring errors after tweeting any post. However, users themselves remain highly divided on the proposition.

The buzz on Edit button got rekindled on April 1, as the official handle itself tweeted about its plan to introduce the same.

we are working on an edit button

— Twitter (@Twitter) April 1, 2022

The announcement left the users confused as some wondered whether it was an April Fools’ day prank while others saw merit & honesty in it.

This tweet by official platform received umpteen reactions from netizens. Many tweeted in favour, others kept mum while some didn’t fall for the prank.

How can an Edit button be introduced? Meta CTO’s views

For years, users have been clamouring for Edit button feature on Twitter. The microblogging site remains highly used platform by ournalists, politicians and other influential people across the globe and that’s probably the reason why the platform doesn’t allow any changes to a tweet once it’s posted.

Any small changes in any tweet can entirely change the meaning & sentiment of the post and thus fuel unrest.

However, there could be multiple ways if Twitter wants to introduce it.

Meta CTO Andrew ‘Boz’ Bosworth says that Facebook resolved this issue long back. A simple ‘edited’ mark on tweets that have been edited could solve this problem, he said.

We solved this on Facebook a long time ago. You just include an indicator that it has been edited along with a change log. If you are really worried about embeds they can point to a specific revision in that history but with a link to the latest edit. Not a real issue.

— Boz (@boztank) April 5, 2022

Other ways could be that any Tweet can be re-edited only after a certain period of time after it is posted.