Elon Musk joins Twitter board; users may finally get edit button

Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal calls Musk an intense critic of the social media giant, which is what it needs.

Parag Agarwal, CEO of Twitter, took the world by surprise when he announced that tech billionaire Elon Musk would be coming onboard the social media platform as an investor.

I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

Agarwal goes on to say that Musk is a passionate believer and an intense critic of Twitter, which is what is needed right now.

He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!

— Parag Agrawal (@paraga) April 5, 2022

Many users weren't entirely surprised, though. Shortly before Agarwal made the official announcement, Musk had taken to Twitter to post a poll that asked a seemingly innocuous question - 'Do you want an edit button?'.

Do you want an edit button?

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2022

Over seventy-three per cent of users voted yes, but this opinion is not new. Many celebrity influencers, including Kim Kardashian, and tech influencer Marques Brownlee have voiced the need for an edit button. The poll attracted over four million votes.

On a personal note, users may be able to use the edit button to, say, correct typos or inaccuracies in numbers or data. Brands could use it in a whole different way. We live in polarised times, where people on social media are quick to take offense over the smallest happenstance.

In the last two years alone, we've seen brands come under fire for a variety of religious and political reasons. Since 2020, some brands that have come under fire include Hindustan Unilever's Surf Excel, ITC's Bingo, Tata's Tanishq, Fabindia, Mondelēz's Cadbury Dairy Milk, Myntra, Zomato, etc.

Also Read: Religion, Twitter trolls and the great Indian brand apology note…

Maybe in Twitter's case, the edit button would allow it to delete less tweets and improve engagement numbers. As of now, the only action a brand can take when their content offends on Twitter, is to pull the creative/tweet down altogether. We will have to wait and watch and see how brands utilise the edit button to make apologies or wrong rights, in this case.