Twitter reverts to old retweet function after U.S. election
FILE PHOTO: FILE PHOTO: People holding mobile phones are silhouetted against a backdrop projected with the Twitter logo
(Reuters) – Twitter Inc is reversing changes made to its retweet function intended to curb the spread of misinformation during the U.S. presidential election, the company said.
The microblogging site had in October made it difficult for users to retweet a tweet with misinformation and promoted the use of quote tweets, which included commentary from the user.
It had also imposed curbs including labeling and removal of tweets calling for people to interfere with the election process or implementation of results.
Twitter Brings Back Old Retweet Function Following US Presidential Election
In October, Twitter made it difficult for users to retweet a tweet with misinformation and promoted the use of quote tweets. By Reuters | Updated: 17 December 2020 13:02 IST
Quote tweets instead of retweets was intended to encourage thoughtful amplification, but hasn t happened
Highlights
Twitter said it will no longer prompt quote tweets from the retweet icon
Implementation of the algorithm had resulted in a reduction in traffic
Twitter is reversing changes made to its retweet function intended to curb the spread of misinformation during the US presidential election, the company said.
The microblogging site had in October made it difficult for users to retweet a tweet with misinformation and promoted the use of quote tweets, which included commentary from the user.
With Election Over, Facebook and Twitter Pause Some Efforts To Crush Conservatives
Now that the election is over and Silicon Valley got the results they wanted, companies like Twitter and Facebook are pausing their efforts to quell conservative voices by reinstating certain retweet and algorithmic functions.
Beginning on Thursday, Twitter reinstated its immediate retweet operations, removing the cumbersome “quote tweet” feature that began plaguing users in October. Instead of requiring “commentary” to retweet something, Twitter once again allows users to quickly share content with one click of a button.
The adapted quote tweet function was part of Twitter’s campaign to “add context, encourage thoughtful consideration and reduce the potential for misleading information to spread on Twitter” before, during, and following the election.
Amidst the US elections, Twitter made a host of policy and functional changes. It did so to curb the spread of misleading information. As one of the changes, it revoked the ability to retweet. The retweet option automatically led to quote retweet. However, Twitter has now reversed these changes. It is bringing back the ability to retweet without having to add a quote to it.
The social media giant took to its social platform to announce the latest development. Today, Retweet functionality was restored to the way it was before. Twitter also shared what it learned with its Quote Tweets experiment. The company said that its goal with prompting to Quote instead of retweeting was to encourage more thoughtful amplification. However, this didn’t happen in practice. It shared that while the use of Quote Tweets increased, about 45% of them included single-word affirmations and 70% had less than 25 characters.
Twitter has removed a feature that automatically showed the quote tweet prompt when you try to retweet something, the company announced on Thursday.
The change to the way retweets worked was first implemented in October after the company released two features aimed at curbing the spread of misinformation on the platform.
But the changes to retweeting caused confusion for some.
Previously, users were given two options: to share directly to their feeds or to share with a comment.
“We’re switching back. You can now choose to Retweet or Quote Tweet the way you did before,” they said on Thursday.