Twitter's upcoming editing feature can track tweet history

According to reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong, editing a tweet using Twitter's upcoming edit button can leave a digital trail of your tweet history. In a tweet, Manchun Wong explains that the editing function has an "immutable" quality, meaning Twitter can create an entirely new tweet when edited while preserving previous versions of that tweet.

"It appears that Twitter's approach to editing tweets is irreversible, such that, instead of replacing tweet text within the same tweet (same ID), it replaces old tweets with a new tweet with modified content." Lists again as Makes up with that editing,” says Manchun Wong.

As mentioned by Manchun Wong, it's unclear how the edit history of a tweet will be visible to users, or if it will be at all. But if Twitter decides to make tweet history public, it could be a way to address concerns over a potential misuse of the feature, as some critics believe it could be used to alter public records. and can be used to mislead users.

App researcher Alessandro Paluzzi also tweeted what appear to be screenshots of the new feature, giving us a glimpse of what the edit button might actually look like when it goes live on Twitter. In one screenshot, Paluzzi shows how an "Edit Tweet" option can appear in the three-dot menu to the right of your Tweet.

Selecting the button takes you to a screen that looks like a regular Tweet Composer, only it's pre-filled with the text of your Tweet and says "Update" in the lower right corner instead of "Tweet." However, Paluji's screenshot does not show the option to view the edit history of the tweet.

Twitter has yet to confirm the existence of a tweet history tracker. "This tweet has nothing more to share at this time than this tweet from @TwitterComms and @JaySullivan, VP of Consumer Product," Twitter spokesperson Anna Hubbatsch said in an emailed statement to The Verge.

After mocking the feature on April Fools' Day, Twitter first announced it was working on the iconic edit button earlier this month. But just before Twitter's official confirmation, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told his followers about an edit button after he revealed he had bought a 9.2 percent stake in Twitter, which became Twitter's largest individual shareholder. It has since been a whirlwind of events, with Musk joining and leaving Twitter's board of directors, and then offering to buy the entire company. Twitter shareholders are currently attempting to block the purchase of Musk's poison pill method.