Twitter may allow you to edit your tweets, but everyone must wear a mask first

“It may have an edit button when everyone wears a mask,” the company tweeted from its flagship account on Thursday.

The comment quickly spread across the platform, retweeted half a million times in 12 hours, and received more than 2 million likes.

Despite the great enthusiasm for an edit button, it’s probably not something Twitter is really considering. “As Twitter Comms tweeted, everyone means everyone,” a spokesperson told CNN Business. “Nothing more to add beyond this!”

The tweet was mostly teased and hailed by many on the site, coming as governments around the world encourage citizens to wear face covers in public to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

But some took it as a political intervention, since not wearing a mask has become a political cause in the United States and in other countries.

A handful of the top Twitter users have targeted the platform to taunt or discourage the wearing of masks, including United States President Donald Trump, who retweeted a message taunting Joe Biden for wearing a mask in May. Since then, Trump has said he would have no problem wearing a mask in public.

Masks have been shown to reduce Covid-19 transmission in several studies.

Some users have long urged Twitter to add the ability to change tweets after they’ve been posted, but the company has resisted those calls.

CEO Jack Dorsey told Wired in January that the site would probably never add the trim.

By contrast, Facebook allows users to edit their posts, although previous versions remain publicly visible.

Twitter has come under scrutiny during the coronavirus pandemic for its handling of misinformation posted on the site, such as when Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk falsely tweeted that children are “essentially immune” to the virus.

Since then, the company has removed thousands of accounts that have spread false information about the virus.