"It was like giving a loaded gun to a four year old boy", regrets the creator of the "Flip" button

Chris Wetherell may not be one of the most famous people on the Internet or in the world of technology, but his work has certainly had an impact on the lives of many Internet users. Wetherell was the one who promoted the creation of the button for retweet.

The funny thing is that the developer does not have a very positive look at the impact of this Twitter feature.

In a recent interview with BuzzFeed Wetherell, he pointed out that setting up the retweet button was a bit like giving a four-year-old boy a loaded gun. However, he explained, nobody in the company had imagined how this new option would change the use of the platform.

Development

The retweet button was created in 2009 by a team led by Wetherell. In its design, it has been imagined as a system giving more power to the voices of communities that are not adequately represented.

In practice, he became aware of the need, because the custom of copying tweets for republishing already existed, although this is done manually.

Consequences

Although in many cases the new function has been beneficial, it has helped to better disseminate disaster alerts or public good campaigns. It has also become an element of exposure and harbadment and the ideal option for "viralizing" misinformation campaigns.

The problem is that these behaviors were not marginal, but became the norm of the social network.

Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, recently admitted that the network encourages the publication of content inspired by anger and indignation.