British actor and politician Laurence Fox recently went on a Twitter tirade, in which he posted Tweets which have been widely condemned as racist and homophobic, whilst attacking the supermarket Sainsbury’s. Fox claimed that unconscious bias training is ‘pseudoscience,’ before starting to accuse some of his respondents of being ‘paedophiles.’ Two of his targets were high profile queer men – the usual recipients of that particular slander. After this obnoxious flurry of Tweets, Fox went on to suggest that Twitter develop a ‘retract’ button. Such a button was probably mere wishful thinking from Fox, who has subsequently been sued for his outburst. However, could it be that amongst this madness, Fox has actually come up with a good idea? 

This hypothetical retract button would stamp a Tweet, serving to publicly indicate that you have changed your opinion or stance since posting it. This would have the potential to add some colour to the torturously black and white world of Twitter – a platform on which it is increasingly impossible to evade the ghosts of your former views. It could slow the rampage of ‘cancel culture’ serving as a reminder that people can change.

However, like any other feature on social media, its benefits and disadvantages would depend entirely on its users. Those who are unbothered by the impact of their words could retract every other statement as a means to evade having to apologise for what they have said, or as a way to abdicate any responsibility for the consequences of their words. 

On balance, I think a retract button would take us in the opposite direction to where we ought to be heading. It would reinforce the message that one need not think before posting, because it can always be deleted, or better yet, ‘retracted.’ What Laurence Fox and many others seem to be forgetting is that although written words can be physically taken back, they cannot be unseen.

Laurence Fox’s suggestion raises a larger question. Is social media, at its core, capable of reform? I believe the systems themselves are irreversibly flawed. No matter how well-intentioned, any alterations or new guidelines will be abused by a cyberspace which is brimming with lies and swarming with trolls. We are living in a world in which the quote, ‘a lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes’ is if anything, an understatement. 

Were Twitter to take on Fox’s suggestion, it would not be the first time that they had tried to improve their platform. At the beginning of this year, Twitter announced that they would be trialling a new function which would allow users to block any replies to their Tweets. Whilst all these amendments could theoretically improve the platform, realistically it feels as though we are fighting a losing battle. Twitter relies entirely on speed, simplicity and scandals; it will never be a space which promotes consideration.   

The majority of the issues encountered on Twitter could be resolved by people simply taking a moment to think before committing something to black and white. Take Fox for example: were he to have paused before lashing out, he would not currently be being sued for defamation. However, the relentlessly fast-paced nature of social media will never be able to encourage such thoughtfulness.

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