You Can Now Retweet Like You Normally Would
Twitter started discouraging Retweets in October 2020. Anytime you tried to Retweet content on the platform, you’d be presented with a prompt that would ask you to Quote Tweet instead.
The prompt was put in place to combat misinformation ahead of the US presidential election. Twitter hoped that it would make users produce more thoughtful and well-informed Tweets.
However, Twitter found that the prompt didn’t really do much (other than annoy its users). Twitter Support sent out a Tweet outlining its findings, saying that while the number of Quote Tweets did increase, the quality of Quote Tweets wasn’t what the platform hoped for.
Instead of users adding thoughtful commentary, 45 percent of Quote Tweets during this period had only one-word affirmations, and 70 percent were less than 25 characters. Content on the platform also decreased by 20 percent overall, so Twitter feels that doing away with the Quote Tweet prompt is for the best.
Despite not getting the results it wanted, Twitter isn’t giving up completely. It notes that it will still “focus on encouraging more thoughtful amplification,” and that this will likely require “multiple solutions.”
Retweet Without Limits
It’s very possible that we’ll see more experimental features like this in the future. Twitter already encourages users to read articles before Retweeting them and found that the prompt actually led to a higher rate of more informed Tweets; this means that the feature is here to stay.
