Dorsey answers several questions from Twitter users in the video, and inevitably someone asks whether we’ll get an edit button in 2020. “The answer is no,” says Dorsey in a matter-of-factly manner. Dorsey then goes on to explain some of the reasoning behind the decision. He notes that Twitter started out as an SMS service and “when you send a text, you can’t really take it back.” He then presents the common argument that someone could edit a tweet after it’s gained popularity, changing the context of replies and retweets. It’s not like the company hasn’t seriously thought about edits though, as Dorsey notes Twitter has considered imposing a brief delay before sending the tweet – 30 seconds to a minute – to allow you to edit things like typos and broken links. Gmail’s ‘Undo’ button comes to mind. This could pose a bit of a problem for live-tweeting events and the like, but it’s probably the safest way to go about edits. You might not think 30 seconds is much time, but someone with a large following could spread a lot of misinformation in that time. A small delay before the tweet actually goes out seems like a decent compromise for typos and the like. “But we’ll probably never do it, ” says Dorsey, with such an inscrutable expression and deadpan delivery that I can’t quite tell if it’s sarcasm or resolute indifference. You can watch the rest of the video over at Wired, where Dorsey addresses a number of other questions and concerns, including how Twitter handles your media and typos in hashtags. He also says you can tweet Twitter product lead @kayvz to get verified, who claims he is not, in fact, the Verification God.
