Twice as much Trump? Twitter doubles its character limit on tweets

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This article titled “Twice as much Trump? Twitter doubles its character limit on tweets” was written by Olivia Solon in San Francisco, for theguardian.com on Tuesday 26th September 2017 22.28 UTC

Twitter has doubled the character limit on tweets to allow its users to convey more meaning or emotion – or, in the case of Donald Trump, more elaborate war threats to North Korea.

“This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160-character SMS limit,” said chief executive Jack Dorsey, announcing the update on Tuesday.

This is a small change, but a big move for us. 140 was an arbitrary choice based on the 160 character SMS limit. Proud of how thoughtful the team has been in solving a real problem people have when trying to tweet. And at the same time maintaining our brevity, speed, and essence! https://t.co/TuHj51MsTu

— jack (@jack) September 26, 2017

The decision was motivated by research carried out by the social network that showed you can convey double the amount of information per character in languages like Japanese, Korean and Chinese than you can in languages like English, Spanish, Portuguese or French.

“Our research shows us that the character limit is a major cause of frustration for people Tweeting in English, but it is not for those Tweeting in Japanese,” said Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen in a blogpost.

Twitter extends its character limit from 140 to 280. Photograph: Twitter

The team found that only 0.4% of tweets sent in Japanese hit the 140-character limit, while a much higher percentage of tweets in English (9%) hit the limit.

“When people don’t have to cram their thoughts into 140 characters and actually have some to spare we see more people tweeting – which is awesome,” Rosen added.

She acknowledged that some people have an “emotional attachment” to 140 characters – “we felt it, too” – but that when the team tried it they “fell in love with this new, still brief, constraint”.

Twitter is testing the new feature with a small subset of its 328 million users before deciding whether to launch it to everyone.

Related: Twitter says Trump’s threat to North Korea was ‘newsworthy’ and will not be taken down

The announcement polarized Twitter users, with some arguing that the company should have prioritized an editing tool or a clampdown on white nationalists using the platform.

For others the focus was on Donald Trump who recently posted a tweet that North Korea has interpreted as a “clear declaration of war”.

In response to a speech by North Korea’s Ri Yong-ho at the United Nations on Sunday, Trump wrote that if the foreign minister “echoed” the thoughts of Kim Jong-un, the two men “won’t be around for much longer”. It was the latest in a series of hostile statements between the two countries.

Just heard Foreign Minister of North Korea speak at U.N. If he echoes thoughts of Little Rocket Man, they won’t be around much longer!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017

Twitter’s terms of service forbid making violent threats, but the company refused to take the tweet down, arguing that Trump’s statement was “newsworthy” and in the public interest.

Close your eyes.

Imagine Trump using Twitter.

Now imagine Trump using Twitter with 280 characters.

Now close Twitter.

— M.G. Siegler (@mgsiegler) September 26, 2017

It is not yet clear whether Trump is among the test group of users to have access to the additional characters.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010

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