Twitter Temporarily Change How To Retweet Posts On Social Media
JAKARTA - Twitter has temporarily changed the format and the way users retweet. Where now, users are forced to re-copy tweet excerpts before retweeting.
Launching The Verge, Wednesday, October 21, the change in how to retweet is carried out ahead of the presidential election in the United States (US) which will be held on November 3. This method is done to prevent abuse and the spread of misinformation on Twitter.
By directing users to re-quote someone's post, Twitter hopes that netizens can be wiser and consider the retweet. This includes giving pauses for users to add their views on an issue.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, through his personal account, also responded to netizens' comments regarding the change in how to retweet. According to him, users are still able to retweet normally without having to add comments.
Although it is not as easy as the previous way of retweeting, this step is considered effective to give someone time lag to repost uploads from other people's tweets (Quote Tweet).
Not only that, Twitter also made changes by hiding the information "liked by" (liked by) and "followed by" (followed by) from followers. The same is done by adding context to word searches in the Trending Topic.
Our work to limit the spread of misleading information goes beyond elections. Starting today, before you Retweet or Quote Tweet any labeled Tweet that breaks our misleading information rules, you'll see a prompt. I'll provide more context on why the Tweet breaks our rules. pic.twitter.com/KjQSnDk8cC
- Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) October 16, 2020
It is likely that this change will only occur for Twitter users in the US, until the voting process ends, without specifying the exact date.