Should Twitter Have an Edit Button?




Function with Anil Dash show

Summary: If you're an active Twitter user, you've probably made a typo or a mistake in a tweet before that you wish you could correct. You could delete the tweet and just write another one, or Twitter could create a feature that users have adamantly requested for years -- an edit button. Even Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey has mulled over this feature, and according to recent news, it may just happen. Enabling a button to edit your tweets sounds like an easy thing to set up from a user standpoint, but like most technological features, implementing it comes with its own positives and negatives. We talk to Andy Carvin, author, professor, and former social media editor for NPR. Andy knows firsthand how one misinformed tweet can have a dangerous ripple effect. He talked about how an edit feature could be used to report the news more responsibly. Then we talk with Leslie Miley, chief technology officer for the Obama Foundation and former engineering manager at Twitter, about the technical and ethical considerations around creating an edit feature. Show notes and other references: NPR's Giffords Mistake: Re-Learning the Lesson of Checking Sources Charles Johnson, one of the Internet’s most infamous trolls, has finally been banned from Twitter