In late September, Twitter announced that it would slowly be rolling out a new feature — double the number of characters for certain accounts. While going from 140 to 280 characters is certainly a big change for the platform, critics quickly pointed out that an edit function or banning accounts affiliated with hate groups or coordinated harassment campaigns might be a better idea.
Some were also skeptical of the usefulness of 280 characters when brevity has always been characteristic of Twitter.
139 characters pic.twitter.com/WkfdXL8oLh
— Caitlin Kelly (@caitlin__kelly) September 26, 2017
Good news: Soon everyone will be sending 280-character tweets.
Word of the feature expansion comes from Politico:
WE HEAR … — TWITTER will up its character limit to 280 characters for everyone in the very near future. D.C. is beginning to buzz about it, as political operatives have caught wind of the change.
As many pointed out, the reaction to Twitter expanding its character limit was, perhaps, a little overblown.
https://twitter.com/poniewozik/status/912787813069934592
No celebrities left the platform, and the heaviest users have already adjusted to the change, though some still think the change will impede innovation. As the Washington Post has pointed out, 280 characters will be helpful in one demonstrable way — President Trump will not have to take as much time while (slowly, ever so slowly) livetweeting episodes of Fox & Friends. Hopefully, giving President Trump double the characters will result in doubly creative nicknames for the targets of his angry statements.
(Via Politico)