Twitter has just released a new feature they say will protect US elections from tampering. The result? You can’t retweet anyone like normal anymore.
By adding a little friction they hope people will think twice before clicking on the RT button and sharing a questionable tweet with their followers.
You can in fact still RT like normal. Just click the RT button and instead of adding a comment, which creates a “Quoted retweet” just leave the comment blank and click on the “Retweet” button.
A lot of people will find this annoying and be confused because they don’t want to Quote retweet someone. They just want to use the normal RT function.
Clicking the retweet button will give the same result though.
Give it a try with this tweet right here.
ICYMI: You can still retweet like normal by clicking on the RT button and leaving the comment section blank and clicking “Retweet”. pic.twitter.com/0BOOCKeY58
— Hypefury (@hypefury) October 21, 2020
The new retweet functionality will stay in place until a week after the US elections. On November 9th things should turn back to normal again. Don’t get too used to it! 😂
Update October 22nd: Twitter has just rolled out updates on Android and iOS devices. The “new” retweet mode is now also available on your mobile phone. You can use the same process to retweet a tweet on your iPhone or Android device.
Just click on the RT icon. Leave the comments section blank and click the blue Retweet button.