Twitter is under fire following new claims it does not delete direct messages.
According to a report in TechCrunch, direct messages that are unavailable on the Twitter web client and on smartphones are still saved – sometimes for years after they are deleted by users.
The social network, which announced a $789 million profit in October, also saves messages that are sent from suspended or deactivated accounts, according to a file from archive data.
Twitter says that the messages were kept following a bug in a now unused API and that he was able to recover direct messages that had been deleted on both sides (by the sender and recipient of the original messages).
The company added that deactivated accounts had their personal information deleted after thirty days, although reports suggest this is not the case.
Twitter allows users to download all personal information and data associated with their account, even those who have suspended or deactivated accounts, and see the data that the company is storing, including advertising preferences and information on gender, age, and interests.
This information comes from the content you search for and interact with.
The company said that it would be “looking into this further to ensure we have considered the entire scope of the issue,” and that a fix should be expected in the coming months.
Edit tweets in 2019?
In other Twitter news, the social network is reportedly considering a new edit tweets feature after years of requests from users, including celebrities such as Kim Kardashian West.
Speaking with Recode, CEO Jack Dorsey said that editing tweets is something the firm wanted to solve, but it was cautious about the way in which it did so to prevent against hacks and the spread of fake news.
If users could edit tweets with thousands of likes and replies and change the tweet’s meaning, there could be negative consequences for all involved.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said the “clarification” feature would allow users to add additional context to a tweet without changing its original content. The idea of edit button was ruled out, for it would lead to confusion if a tweet shared by many and is later edited. pic.twitter.com/CBlgv1vIFi
— The Inc Informer (@IncInformer) February 16, 2019
“How do we enable people to quickly go back or to any tweet, whether it be years back or today, and show that original tweet — kind of like a quote retweet, a retweet with comment — and to add some context and some color on what they might have tweeted or what they might have meant,” Jack said. “By doing so you might imagine that the original tweet then would not have the sort of engagement around it. Like you wouldn’t be able to retweet the original tweet, for instance. You would just show the clarification, you would be able to retweet the clarification, so it always carries around with it that context. That’s one approach. Not saying that we are going to launch that but those are the sorts of questions we are going to ask.”
In a press release, Twitter said it was working on a Tweet Clarification feature, but that it would be first tested with journalists and reporters before being rolled out to all Twitter users.
