By: Nick Gambino
In a bid to lure even more people away from X (forever formerly known as Twitter), Threads is releasing an edit button free of charge.
Mark Zuckerberg announced the new feature in a Threads post on Thursday. “Rolling out Edit and Voice Threads today. Enjoy!” his post read.
This is a very clear contrast to X which charges users for the feature as part of their $8 monthly Blue subscription. Since its inception over a decade ago, X/Twitter has eschewed an edit button in place of unalterable and fleeting posts. Of course, you could delete your post, but if it was doing numbers, you’d much rather leave it up, typos and misinformation be damned.
That said, I’m not sure Threads is getting a leg-up here because of choices they’re making, Here’s the problem with how Threads is doing it. The Meta-owned platform doesn’t show you whether or not a post has been edited. Why is that important? Well, it means shady characters could edit a post significantly and it’ll look as though users liked or reposted the new post as opposed to what was originally posted.
In contrast, X shows you an edit history in an effort to be more transparent. It protects all users. And sure, maybe it doesn’t look sexy putting it out to the world that you had to edit the post (God forbid we make a mistake), but it means we’ve documented the timeline on engagement.
“While the free edit button in Threads is going to be a big draw for new users, there’s a clear downside to not showing you an edit history,” Andrew Tropeano, Host of News Around America (www.newsaroundamerica.com) said of the new feature. “In a digital world filled with misinformation, transparency is key. Meta has to learn that lesson. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see this reflected in a future update.”
The Threads edit button is currently rolling out to all users on mobile and web as of this writing.
