Twitter announced on Tuesday that it will begin testing a new editing feature in the coming months, surprising its users on the same day that Tesla President Elon Musk will join its board of directors.
Jay Sullivan, Twitter’s director of consumer products, said in a tweet that the company has been working since last year on building an editing option, “Twitter’s most requested feature for many years.”
The news comes as the company faces a broader change of direction, with Musk becoming its biggest shareholder and joining the board of directors after questioning the social media platform’s commitment to free speech.
Musk began polling Twitter users about an edit button after touting his 9.2% stake in the company on Monday. This Tuesday, the poll he carried out received over 4.2 million votes, with 73.5% of the participants expressing support for the launch of the editing tool.
Sullivan wrote that the editing feature will take time to adjust, as “without things like time limits, controls, and transparency over what is edited, Edit can be misused to alter the record of the public conversation”.
The company will actively seek “comments and counter arguments before releasing Edit,” he added.
Twitter will begin testing the feature on its premium subscription service Twitter Blue Labs in the coming months to “learn what works, what doesn’t and what’s possible,” he said.
Twitter Blue members get exclusive access to premium features and app customizations in exchange for a monthly subscription.
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