Editable Tweets

News about Elon Musk’s proposed Twitter takeover has died down, but a new feature to edit tweets, which Musk encourages, is in progress. The feature would allow users to change tweets without deleting them and reposting.

Proponents point to other platforms—Reddit, Facebook, Instagram—that allow text changes. The ability to edit would fix typos (remember “covfefe”?) and allow people to change their minds after sending, say, offensive tweets.

When Jack Dorsey was CEO, he resisted the idea, and Twitter made this joke about wearing masks. After all, the platform was designed like a text messaging service, and texts cannot be changed. The company viewed editing as an issue of integrity.

The company will keep a history of tweets, so editing creates a new one without deleting the original. This seems to be a good compromise and still meets users’ many requests for the feature.