Twitter temporarily changes how retweets work ahead of US election: 'Headlines don’t tell the full story'

You’ll still be able to retweet, but it won’t be at a click of a button

Twitter's revenue jumped 14 per cent to $936 million during the third quarter. Reuters

In a bid to thwart the dissemination of misinformation, Twitter is changing how you retweet ahead of the upcoming US presidential election.

But only temporarily.

You’ll still be able to retweet, of course. But it won’t be at a click of a button.

Instead, a larger window will pop up once you click on those circular arrows, prompting you to add your own commentary above a quote tweet.

If you’re wondering how to retweet something without making it a quote tweet or adding your own commentary, simply leave the text box above the quote tweet blank.

Twitter announced the new process in a tweet posted to the social media platform on Wednesday, October 21. The changes are expected to last until at least the end of election week in the US.

“Hey everyone, we made a temporary change to the retweet function,” the company wrote. “When you hit the retweet button, you can either add a comment to quote tweet or leave it blank and hit the retweet button.”

The revised function is aimed to add some friction to the retweet process, which can cause misinformation to spread like wildfire.

Earlier this month, Vijaya Gadde – Twitter legal, policy, and trust and safety lead – and Kayvon Beykpour – product lead – authored a blog post revealing the changes.

The “extra friction and an extra step” they wrote, will “increase the likelihood that people add their own thoughts, reactions and perspectives to the conversation.”

If you’re retweeting an article, Twitter will remind you to read it first with a pop-up window that says “headlines don’t tell the full story”.

“Reading an article before retweeting it? That’s growth,” the company shared on its Twitter page.

“Twitter has a critical role to play in protecting the integrity of the election conversation,” Gadde and Beykpour wrote. “We encourage candidates, campaigns, news outlets and voters to use Twitter respectfully and to recognise our collective responsibility to the electorate to guarantee a safe, fair and legitimate democratic process this November.”