Skip to main content

Twitter says it will add an edit button … if everyone wears a face mask

“Give us an edit button!” has been the cry of the Twitter masses pretty much ever since the microblogging service launched 14 years ago. But, despite the company occasionally claiming that it’s considering the sought-after feature, it still hasn’t landed.

This week the company has once again teased the prospect of an edit button that would allow its community to tweak their posts and correct any typos after publishing them. In a tweet on Thursday, July 2, Twitter said you can have an edit button … so long as everyone wears a face mask to help slow the spread of the coronavirus.

“You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask,” the company said in its tweet, later clarifying it with a follow-up message saying, “Everyone means EVERYONE.” So, don’t expect an edit button anytime soon.

Twitter’s view that face masks can help fight the pandemic is in line with current advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which, it’s fair to say, knows a thing or two about the issue.

But Twitter’s decision to enter the contentious debate about the effectiveness of face coverings, and whether people should have to wear them, is likely to kick up a stink on its platform, a place already home to many text-based tiffs. Indeed, cynics might suggest Twitter’s little tease is nothing more than a sloppy attempt by the company to boost engagement on its site by raising the issue of the edit button alongside masks, with no intention of really acting on it. But if everyone starts wearing a face covering, well, you never know …

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has said in years gone by that his team has been “thinking a lot” about creating an edit button, but added that it needs to be “done in the right way.” In an interview with Joe Rogan in 2019, Dorsey elaborated, explaining that if Twitter eventually decided to include an edit button, you probably wouldn’t be allowed to edit tweets from the distant past, or even ones you’d just posted.

Instead, he said the feature could offer “a 5-second to 30-second delay in the sending” after you hit the post button, similar to how some email clients offer an undo button for the first few seconds after you hit send. In other words, Dorsey’s idea of an edit button means the tweet wouldn’t go live during the time that you’re allowed to edit it.

That may be good enough for most folks, but first you’re going to have to persuade everyone to wear a mask. Good luck with that.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
What is Mastodon? Here’s why everyone’s talking about this Twitter alternative
Series of four mobile screenshots showing Mastodon's sign-up process.

By now you've no doubt heard about Mastodon. It's a social media platform that's been bandied about as an alternative to Twitter, particularly among users who aren't comfortable with the direction Twitter is going in now that Elon Musk is at the helm.

In fact, since Musk first announced that he was planning on buying the popular microblogging platform, Mastodon has garnered quite a bit of attention and experienced significant growth. But though you've likely heard about Mastodon, you may not be familiar with how it works or haven't decided whether or not it would be a good fit for you if you ever choose to leave Twitter and need an alternative social media platform. Don't worry. We've got you covered. In this guide, we'll get you up to speed on everything you need to know about social media's buzziest new platform.
What is Mastodon?

Read more
Some blue check Twitter users were unable to edit their names
Twitter app on the OnePlus 10T.

Twitter's recent blue check verification drama took an even sillier turn yesterday. Amid all the recent commotion regarding Twitter Blue subscriptions, paying for blue checks, and impersonation versus parody, some Twitter users temporarily lost their ability to edit their screen names.

On Monday evening, some verified Twitter users began reporting that they couldn't change their screen names. It's unclear to us at this time if the issue these users were experiencing was a bug or a new feature of a platform that was recently purchased by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

Read more
Everyone is going to face longer waits for new iPhones
An iPhone 14 Pro Max with the display turned on. We see the Home Screen and Pixel Pals running in the Dynamic Island.

In an unusually upfront admission, Apple said on Sunday that customers planning to buy an iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 14 Pro Max face longer wait times for their order due to COVID-19 restrictions impacting one of its key assembly facilities in China.

In a message on its website, Apple said that COVID precautions at its primary, Foxconn-run iPhone assembly plant in Zhengzhou, China, have led to “significantly reduced capacity.”

Read more