Elon Musk, Twitter’s largest shareholder, polls followers for an edit button

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Elon Musk has wasted no time making his Twitter function priorities clear after changing into its largest shareholder yesterday. The Tesla CEO has polled his 80 million followers about whether or not they’d like to have the ability to edit their tweets after posting them. Twitter’s new CEO Parag Agrawal subsequently quote-tweeted Musk’s ballot to say that “The implications of this ballot can be vital. Please vote fastidiously.” The phrasing mirrors the same tweet from Musk about free speech on March twenty fifth, days after he acquired nearly 10 % of the corporate.
The so-called “edit button” has been probably the most generally requested options of the social media platform. In an excellent world it might merely permit customers to wash up typos after publishing their tweets, however critics declare the function could possibly be ripe for abuse, permitting customers to considerably change the that means of tweets after they’ve been shared throughout the platform. Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey mentioned that the corporate would “in all probability by no means” add an edit button in an interview in early 2020.

Responding to his ballot, Twitter consumer “On a regular basis Astronaut” prompt that the edit button solely be out there for a short while after first tweeting, and that edited tweets comprise a hyperlink displaying the edit made. In response Musk mentioned, “that sounds affordable.” Many different social media platforms already permit customers to edit their posts, however as my colleague Casey Newton argued, none have seen this function broadly abused. Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth mentioned Fb had “solved” the edit button downside in response to Musk’s ballot.
The ballot comes days after Twitter’s official account mentioned “we’re engaged on an edit button,” nevertheless it made the assertion on April Idiot’s day (probably the most untrustworthy day of the 12 months). Nonetheless this week Twitter product lead Michael Sayman quote tweeted this obvious gag, and known as it the corporate’s “official assertion” on the function.
Musk is technically a passive shareholder of Twitter. He disclosed his funding in a Schedule 13G submitting, which is generally reserved for stakes that haven’t been acquired “with any objective, or with the impact, of fixing or influencing the management of the issuer,” based on Bloomberg’s Matt Levine. However the Wall Road Journal studies that Musk’s submitting didn’t embrace the usual certification saying he doesn’t intend to affect the corporate, and that the Tesla CEO merely wrote “Not Relevant” as an alternative.
Musk’s tweets don’t instruct Twitter so as to add an edit button, however his ballot (which as of this writing is 73.7 % in favor with over 2 million votes tallied) sends a reasonably robust sign to Twitter about whether or not one needs to be added. “If the folks vote overwhelmingly for one thing, it’s no less than *a* information level!” Musk wrote in a follow-up tweet, earlier than calling crypto bots the “single most annoying downside” on the platform.
No matter Musk’s intentions, Twitter’s CEO is clearly paying consideration.

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