Twitter may add an edit feature but only if people wear face masks as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, according to its latest announcement.
There is still no way of editing a tweet once it is posted. A user must either delete it or let it be.
Twitter posted an announcement teasing the long-awaited feature on the platform: “You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask.”
Meanwhile, social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn have allowed users to edit what they post for years. However, some Twitter users like Kim Kardashian expressed their confusion about the absence of the feature on Twitter.
With an edit tweet option, Twitter users can fix the errors in their tweet whether they later realized something was wrong or if they committed a typo. An April 2013 article on Wired was entitled: “The One Function Twitter Desperately Needs.” The article’s author, Matt Honan, emphasized that an edit feature is important in combatting misinformation.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said earlier this year that adding an edit button could be difficult due to practical considerations.
“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 said on Joe Rogan’s podcast last February that Twitter was thinking of coming up with a feature that could delay sending tweets. This delay could last up to 30 seconds. During the delay, a user can edit a sent tweet before it gets published on the platform for followers to see.
In the same month at a Goldman Sachs event in San Francisco, Dorsey said that Twitter was “thinking about” a feature that would allow users to 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.”
Twitter has been known for surprising its followers in other ways since the coronavirus pandemic began. In May, Twitter allowed its workforce to work from home forever as the virus led to the closure of offices around the world.
Moreover, Dorsey will donate $1 billion, a quarter of his fortune, to carry out relief efforts for Covid-19 and other causes.
Effectiveness of mask wearing
A study published in the medical journal The Lancet showed that social distancing and wearing of masks found effective in reducing COVID-19 risk.
New research suggests that physical distancing and the use of a mask remained the top ways to curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
Findings revealed that people must stay at least three feet apart and more if possible.
The study, paid for by the World Health Organization, disclosed three major results that involve social distancing and use of face masks as effective protection from COVID-19.
When it comes to social distancing, the chance of virus transmission at a distance of less than 1 meter was 12.8%. However, that becomes 2.6% at a distance of more than one meter. What is more effective is distances of two meters. The veracity of the evidence appeared “moderate.”
