Twitter considers letting users ‘clarify’ old tweets

Twitter may be given the option to provide context to old messages. This should replace an edit function, which users have frequently requested. However, there would be an option to adjust tweets shortly after posting.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said he was considering adding context to old messages. He made his statements during a Goldman Sachs event in San Francisco. Recode then reported Dorsey’s statements.

The ability to clarify old messages could help put bad messages in context; Dorsey points out that people today are judged by posts they made on Twitter, for example, years ago. For example, this can affect someone’s career.

It is not yet clear exactly what the contextualization function should look like. It may be comparable to the retweet function, where a message can be reposted and commented on. Dorsey states that it is still being considered, and it is also unclear when the functionality should be available.

Twitter previously announced that it is working on a function to adjust messages shortly after posting. This would be possible up to a maximum of half a minute after placement, and is mainly intended to repair spelling errors, for example. According to Dorsey, the lack of the ability to always adjust messages makes sense because of the ‘real-time’ element of Twitter.