Elon Musk Polls For Edit Button On Twitter! Netizens Worried About Its Consequences

Recently Elon Musk has created a stir among Twitter users when he ran a poll to ask if the followers wanted an edit button feature on Twitter. As it is with Musk, you can never guess if he is just joking or genuine about the topic he shares on Twitter, so most of Musk’s followers were casual about the poll.

Do you want an edit button?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022

But only to be shocked when Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal dug in, requesting users to “vote carefully.” Agarwal said that the consequences of this poll will be important.

The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully. https://t.co/UDJIvznALB
— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

A Twitter user presented an arguement on this poll, where he wrote, “Here’s my argument against an edit button: What if a tweet goes viral, lots of retweets & millions of impressions, & then the author completely changes the meaning? Not just a grammatical fix, but a TOTAL ideological change? Or shameless self-promote?”

Also, a verified answer to this argument was given by an employee of Facebook who wrote, “We solved this on Facebook a long time ago. You just include an indicator that it has been edited along with a change log. If you are really worried about embeds they can point to a specific revision in that history but with a link to the latest edit. Not a real issue.”

https://twitter.com/boztank/status/1511171084560723969?s=20&t=2xAKyDDsWe3Jn_KfLZVO8Q

Not only these, but netizens came forward and gave their suggestions for the argument about Elon Musk’s new tweets. They have mixed reactions to this poll, some people think that Musk is joking but others are serious about the topic and thinking of its consequences.

Easy if you edit, everyone who liked/rt/qt gets a notification so they can revoke or keep the like/retweet/quote tweet in place.
— Matt Silver (@CohibasN_Cognac) April 5, 2022

Easy: 1 Minute time limit for full edits.

Harder: Grammar check button to flag errors. If you accept the automatic edit, no marking of the tweet.
— Frank Jonen (@frankjonen) April 5, 2022

Seeing the primary reason for pushing an edit button is to be able to fix typos/error in grammar, edits can be limited to a fixed number of characters – say 20, and only allowed once.
Then, the tweet is marked "edited", with an embedded tab to view the original tweet.
— ODDS IN YOUR FAVOUR. (@OddInYourFavour) April 5, 2022

There should be an edit button but after edition it removes all the likes/impressions etc. So if tweet is edited right after publication than no much harm done, and if the tweet goes viral no one would benefit form editing that tweet
— Konrad Piąstka (@K_Piastka) April 5, 2022

I think there should be edit button but editing should be allowed only for correcting grammar mistakes and spelling mistakes only. Editing should not be allowed for replacing words or changing the whole tweet.@elonmusk @Liz_Wheeler @Twitter
— Titan_Abhay_007 (@Titan_Abhay_007) April 5, 2022

It’s been there on Facebook and people had since found a way around this. However, the edit could be time-bound, how many impressions before it becomes uneditable.
— Elijah! (@eliasworth) April 5, 2022

After all these suggestions, Tesla owner Elon Musk then came up with a reply, which reads, “Facebook gives me the willies”.

Facebook gives me the willies
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022

Earlier also a similar incident came to light when Twitter teased users about using an edit button. In 2020, it had announced that it would introduce the feature when everyone started wearing a mask amid the Covid pandemic. “You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask,” Twitter had announced. Previously also, his tweets related to Tesla & Bitcoins created a flutter on the micro-blogging site and the billionaire seems to love all the attention.