Twitter reinstates retweet function following attempt to limit misinformation
The company said there was little context added despite the change
Just a few months after Twitter changed how it handles retweets on its platform in an effort to limit the spread of misinformation, the company has reversed course, going back to its original method.
The Jack Dorsey-led company said on Wednesday that it saw an increase in quote tweets, where people add context, but the context was of little value add.
"Our goal with prompting [quote tweets] (instead of Retweets) was to encourage more thoughtful amplification," Twitter Support wrote in a series of tweets. "We don’t believe that this happened, in practice. The use of Quote Tweets increased, but 45% of them included single-word affirmations and 70% had less than 25 characters."
The company added it would "continue to focus on encouraging "more thoughtful amplification," which may require "multiple solutions––some of which may be more effective than others."
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The change was initially made in October after Twitter and other social networks tried to combat misinformation ahead of the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
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Shares of Twitter, which have risen more than 60% year-to-date, were up 0.67% in early Thursday trade to $54.39.