Twitter has made it known that it has set plans in place to make an edit button available for its over 200 million users, which will enable them to change tweets after they have been posted.
In a poll organized by its new board member and current highest shareholder, Elon Musk, over 70% of voters agreed that it would be ideal for the social media platform to have an edit button.
According to a follow-up tweet by its Head of Consumer Product, Jay Sullivan, Twitter already had plans in place to make an edit button available to users in 2021, but it was still under evaluation. He further hinted that a testing phase will soon commence in the months to come and, hopefully, the edit button will be fully operational after positive results have been obtained from its “Blue Lab.”
He made it quite clear that the decision of the social media company was not in any way influenced by the poll conducted by Elon Musk, although Twitter’s CEO, Parag Agrawal, retweeted the poll and urged users to take it seriously, saying, quote, “The consequence of this poll will be important.” Please vote carefully. “
Elon Musk, who recently conducted two polls, one requesting if users would want the “w” in Twitter deleted for good and the other demanding if users would find it appealing if Twitter converted one of its headquarters in San Francisco into a homeless shelter, has made it known to his over 81 million followers that new signups on the anticipated “Twitter Blue” would have to pay a reoccurring fee of $3/month to get an authentication checkmark. He further stated that he’d prefer it if Twitter did not make advertisement placements available on its “Twitter Blue” as it would put the social media company under the dictatorship of large corporations who use the platform for merchandising products and services.
Subscribing users of “Twitter Blue” will have access to cool features on the app, such as the ability to undo tweets that have been sent, read ad-free articles, bookmark tweets, choose app icon (iOS users only), choose a theme, and can pin DM conversations, as well as upload videos as long as 10 minutes.
The first iteration of Twitter Blue was rolled out in Canada and Australia in June last year in a bid to test the app. Twitter did inform its users that they had no plans to discontinue the free version, which is used by millions of people worldwide, but each user was free to sign up for Twitter Blue at their leisure.
Until Musk’s latest tweet, little was known about the Twitter Blue App, as many of his followers could be seen in the comment session expressing their ignorance of the product.
A follower with the username @MrBeast commented that he didn’t even know that Twitter blue was a thing. His comment was supported by over 17,000 likes. This made it seem like the Twitter blue app hadn’t gained wide recognition yet.
Elon Musk, who recently bought a 9.2% stake amounting to almost US $3 billion in the social media company, making him the largest shareholder and the newest board member, has recently been engaging his followers on the platform in the form of tweets and polls, which in turn has been garnering more followers and social media attention.
Elon Musk surprised his followers on March 25th by announcing a poll asking users if they believed Twitter adhered rigorously to the free speech principle that he claimed was essential to any functioning democracy,
He was quoted as tweeting, “Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle? “After that, he opened an online poll to his over 80 million followers at the time and insisted they vote carefully as he would be utilizing the result of the poll strategically.
Musk’s online poll was met with mixed reactions from his followers. A lot of users aired their opinions by voting “No” in disagreement, while others were in agreement that Twitter was in fact adhering to the free speech principle.
The poll results showed that out of 2,035,924 votes, 70.4% voted “No” and 29.6% voted “Yes.”
The poll’s results trended globally on the internet as Musk’s 9.2 percent stake in Twitter was revealed on Monday, April 4th, and caused the platform’s shares to skyrocket by more than 27%, leaving the internet perplexed as many believed the poll influenced Musk’s decision to own that much of a stake in Twitter Inc.
While the editing button is underway, many hope that Musk’s position as Twitter’s newest board member will influence the company largely.
