Editing Tweets: CEO Jack Dorsey Endorses The Need For Edit Feature On Twitter

Plenty of Twitter users have said something regrettable in 140 characters. Company CEO Jack Dorsey indicated in a tweet on Thursday that there may soon be some recourse for users who make mistakes in the form of an edit feature.

In part of an impromptu between Twitter users and the company CEO, Dorsey responded to a user asking for the ability to edit tweets after sending them by stating, “a form of edit is def needed.”

The user who proposed the feature—Howard Lindzon, CEO of financial social network StockTwits—initially suggested verified users such as himself have an edit feature. But Dorsey tweeted his belief the ability to edit a tweet should be available to all users on the platform, not just those who have been verified.

Lehigh University journalism professor Jeremy Littau also floated to Dorsey the importance of the ability to edit for members of the media, stating the “ability to edit would help news orgs correct mistakes that go viral too.”

Dorsey replied to the tweet by reaffirming the need for the ability to edit tweets.

Twitter declined to provide additional comment beyond Dorsey's tweets.

Twitter users have long called for the ability to edit tweets after the fact—a feature that is necessary for everything from correcting minor spelling and grammar mistakes to correcting misconstrued information—a relatively common occurrence given the platform’s self-imposed character limit.

Slate highlighted a tweet that exemplified the need for an edit function earlier this year following the Dallas Police Department’s publishing of a “suspect” believed to have taken part in attack on Dallas police.

The man identified in the tweet was found to be innocent, but the tweet was retweeted over 40,000 times and garnered many more imprints and views through news stories and screenshots.

An edit feature would have allowed the police to update the tweet and clear the man without removing the tweet from circulation, helping to spread updates on the situation. Instead, the tweet was deleted, leaving an absence of available information.

Dorsey previously endorsed an edit function on Twitter in response to a tweet in July 2015 from Kim Kardashian but over a year and a half later, the CEO is again calling for implementation of the absent feature.

At an event hosted by Recode in 2015, Twitter’s former head of product Kevin Weil said “there are real challenges to editing tweets after you post them,” and challenges in adding such a feature that users may not consider.

Facebook added the ability to edit posts and comments on its platform in 2013.