It seems Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has been feeling the pressure to launch a tweet editing feature on Twitter more than usual lately — even Kim Kardashian is using her sway to gain some in-person petitioning time. At a recent press event in New Delhi, he finally broke his silence on the feature, talking about some of the considerations Twitter needs to take into account, and stating: "We have been considering this for a while and we have to do [it] in the right way. We can't just rush it out."

This sort of perfectionist view is understandable, but it's impossible to refrain from pointing out that when this feature inevitably arrives it will be among the least rushed-out releases known to humankind. After all, Twitter users have been requesting the ability to edit tweets since the platform's inception. It's hard to believe the company hasn't seriously considered how to implement this request at some point over the ensuing 12 years, and if it was waiting for Kim Kardashian's impassioned plea to really get going then there are much larger issues afoot.

In any case, Dorsey's comments are instructive as to what Twitter is taking into account for the feature. Dorsey stated: "A lot of people want the edit button because they want to quickly fix a mistake they made. Like a misspelling or tweeting the wrong URL. That's a lot more achievable than allowing people to edit any tweet all the way back in time."

He also said that Twitter wants to stay away from unlimited editing due to the potential for people to alter controversial statements at a later date. It's unclear why simply showing a log of changes (as is the case, for example, in Slack) wouldn't overcome this issue, though Dorsey did note that Twitter wants to make sure the new feature isn't "distracting."

Truly, a conundrum for the ages. But at least the CEO's comments indicate that a tweet editing feature is coming in one way or another — it's only a matter of time. Let's just hope it's not another 12 years.

Image Credit: JD Lasica via Flickr