Twitter recently announced that it has started experimenting with the "Edit" button.
A novelty that has given rise to many debates, in particular on the possible duration of rewriting, or on the visibility of the initial message.
Despite the fact that it has always been requested, does this feature not risk losing its DNA to Twitter?
The survey launched by Elon Musk, when he became the first shareholder of Twitter at the beginning of the year, did he push the thinking heads of the social network to launch the experimentation of the "Edit" button?
Sea serpent almost since its inception, the implementation of this feature seems to have finally won the game, even as the founder Jack Dorsey, former general manager, affirmed in 2021 to
Wired
that the introduction of a tool to modify the tweets after they were broadcast would "probably never" happen.
We were already talking about it in 2013, when the then main competitor, Facebook, made this option possible.
American journalist Matthew Keys, based in Northern California, not far from Silicon Valley, said in an article: "Twitter is working on a new feature that could allow users to edit their tweets once published, information confirmed by three sources close to the project”.
He was only nine years ahead.
Experimentation on Twitter Blue but not in France
At the beginning of September, Twitter therefore officially announced the launch of the experimentation of the “Edit” button for a few months internally, and its imminent availability for users of the paid version, Twitter Blue.
For the time being, it allows you to modify your tweets several times within 30 minutes of their publication.
The bluebird network also clarified that edited tweets will be accompanied by symbols that clearly indicate that the original post has been corrected.
And it will be possible to access earlier versions of the message.
For Twitter, this should help “protect the integrity of the conversation” and “allow everyone to see what has been said”.
Mathieu Flaig, analyst of subjects related to digital transformations and user of the network since 2008, uses Twitter Blue, launched in June 2021. He uses a VPN to obtain this premium version only available in the United States, Canada, Australia and in New Zealand.
“The features are not revolutionary but still a little different: I have 20 seconds after sending to verify my tweet.
For example, I happened to write "complement" instead of "completely".
I was able to cancel, modify, resend.
Without the version with the shell appearing.
»
Twitter, a network apart
As Emmanuelle Patry, social network specialist and founder of Social Media Lab, says, Twitter is “a social network with high potential for virality and high organic visibility”.
It's in real time, and almost without filters.
“Anyone can come and comment on any information because in general, all posts are made in public and can be found via an appropriate search”, adds Mathieu Flaig.
This is also what makes the originality and uniqueness of Twitter.
“Everyone can exert influence on a subject, appear in TT (
trending topics
).
It is often compared to the agora, especially in the political world, since everyone can express themselves freely there,” adds Emmanuelle Patry.
Moreover, the return to the news of this "Edit" button has given rise to numerous debates in 280 characters.
“Are we not limiting this button to certain types of corrections?
Do we not set up a certain period where it is possible to correct?
If the tweet was posted an hour ago, can I still edit it?
How visible is the fact that the tweet has been edited?
“, can we notably note in the tweets stamped #EditTwitter.
Because depending on the parameters, the risks are different.
The social network expert is campaigning for "a written and legible mention" This tweet has been edited. See previous versions.
»
The risks of deviations
According to him, the most important risk concerns large accounts, "those who have a very powerful and very fast commitment, because they are those who have the greatest power to disseminate information".
By authorizing the modification of a tweet already widely relayed, or even taken up on a larger scale than that of Twitter, in the media for example, one exposes oneself to a total change of meaning, to a loss of its substance, or to that the initial information transmitted becomes obsolete, or even false.
A new challenge in the face of misinformation.
“So imagine that her influencer agency star Magali Berdah's tendonitis story was a tweet and not a video.
With the “Edit” button, she could clearly have changed the meaning and made all the tweets that denounced her words obsolete,” compares Mathieu Flaig.
However, the virality of a tweet, as is today the video of the popess of Shauna Event, is due to the absurdity of the remark, as could have been the "You're a girl and you have no shampoo?
No but hello, what !
by Nabilla.
“To limit the risk of drift, Twitter could ultimately only make this button accessible to certified accounts or to those who pay the premium subscription, offers Mathieu Flaig.
Let the people who use it show their credentials”.
A way to find out who is behind each account through the communication of personal information such as name or bank details, unlike fake accounts, AI and bots against which Elon Musk's grievances, in particular, focus.
Loss of Twitter DNA?
But one question remains: even if this feature has been requested for a long time, won't it make Twitter lose its DNA?
Because the typos, the unwelcome formulations, the errors, are an integral part of this so singular social network.
With the “Edit” button, no Donald Trump “covféfé”.
“This button is an Arlesian from Twitter.
And finally, a typo in a tweet, it's not so horrible: it's already happened to me for a message retweeted 5,000 times, confides Mathieu Flaig again.
It irritates me a little, I feel bad compared to the others, it gives a neglected side”.
Even if most of the time, only the author of the message realizes that he has put -é- instead of -er-.
And if finally, the button "Edit" remains at the stage of experimentation?
"It's possible, it wouldn't be a first in social media," notes the analyst.
This was the case with Fleets, the Twitter stories”.
They did not last long: available from November 2020, they were decommissioned in August 2021. Because this means of communication, so precious to the Meta group, especially on Instagram, did not at all seduce the twittersphere.
"Twitter remains a platform that can be adapted as desired," concludes Mathieu Flaig.
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