“We\u00a0are making this change after listening and observing a problem our global community was having (it wasn’t easy enough to Tweet!), studying data to understand how we could improve, trying it out, and listening to your feedback,” Twitter product manager Aliza Rosen wrote in a blog post.<\/p>\n
Most people should automatically see the 280-character feature. If not, they can update their mobile app or refresh twitter.com on their computers. People tweeting in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese will remain at the 140 character limit for now.<\/p>\n
The move comes at an awkward time for Twitter, which has been facing criticism and pressure from shareholders, Congress, President Donald Trump and everyday people who use it. Among the most-discussed complaints have been concerns that the company negligently mishandled the daily harassment some people experience on its service and that it allowed propaganda on the platform that illegally influenced the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n
It’s probably no surprise that the company’s user count has stalled at 330 million accounts, and that’s after Twitter admitted to having overcounted user numbers for three years.<\/p>\n
Concerns about Russian interference in the US election led congressional leaders to grill Facebook, Google and Twitter on the details of how that meddling happened and what the tech giants are doing to stop it. Fearing federal regulation, the companies have vowed to make changes.<\/p>\n
So, again, what does 280 characters have to do with all this? The announcement could briefly divert negative attention from larger problems, said Kelley Heider, a crisis communications expert at SSPR, a public relations firm that often works with tech companies.<\/p>\n
“They change their narrative in the news cycle by responding to user feedback,” she said.<\/p>\n
But there are potential pitfalls to the new character count, Heider added, particularly if people use the greater length to post even more inflammatory tweets.<\/p>\n
“It will be pretty interesting to see what President Trump does with it, for sure,” she said.<\/p>\n
For years, Twitter has toyed with the notion of changing its 140-character rule, which was established around the time the company was created in 2006.<\/p>\n