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Published 12:42 IST, December 17th 2020

Twitter brings 'retweet' option back, netizens welcome news with hilarious memes

Twitter’s new update about lifting retweet ban and deemphasizing "quote tweet” prompted users to share comical memes, jokes, one-liners welcoming the feature.

Reported by: Zaini Majeed
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As the microblogging site, Twitter, informed its users about the restoration of the ‘retweet’ feature on December 16, users, excitedly, launched a meme fest to celebrate the good news. Since Oct. 20, the social media platform had imposed restrictions on the retweet option only allowing users to quote the tweets in order to combat disinformation and unverified claims ahead of the US election. Lindsay McCallum from the Twitter communications team had rolled out a tweet saying “Think before you (re)tweet[.]”

The restrictions were applied across all accounts "that obtained significant engagement.” But with Twitter’s new update about lifting those bans and deemphasizing "quote tweet”, users expressed joy with comical memes, jokes, one-liners welcoming the ‘retweet’ feature that finally made it home. “We’re switching back. You can now choose to Retweet,” the San Francisco-based company informed, sharing the post from October that had announced a clampdown on the Retweet function.

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According to Twitter, at the tie of the election, there was an onslaught of tweets meant to incite interference with the election process or with the implementation of election results. And therefore, the company took a drastic step to encourage people to add their own commentary and Quote Tweet that just amplifying a Tweet that could be misleading. Upon restoration of the feature, Twitter explained in a blog post that while the use of Quote Tweets undoubtedly increased, users mostly quoted “single-word affirmations and 70 percent had less than 25 characters.” 

Read: Twitter Releases Most Tweeted Emojis In India During The Year 2020, Take A Look

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Netizens launch meme fest

Having bagged one of the most widely used features on Twitter back, a user appealed, “you listened to the people now continue listening and add the edit button.” The comment was accompanied by a side-splitting SpongeBob meme to convey the point. “May we also get folders for our bookmarks,” another joked. “We did it, Joe, it’s back, we’re gonna be able to retweet post like normal again!” Another wrote sharing the US vice president elect’s meme. Many such funny requests about the edit button and memes welcoming the restoration of the retweet flooded the platform as users dropped humour incessantly. 

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12:43 IST, December 17th 2020