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Why won't Twitter let me retweet? Here's what to know about the temporary change.

Don't Panic, You Can Still Retweet On Twitter — Here's How

by Cianna Garrison
SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

Twitter has made some changes to its platform, and one of the fan-favorite options is gone (for now). The recent update to the social media platform has a lot of users confused, and if you've also been wondering why Twitter won’t let you retweet, there's actually a pretty simple explanation — and you can still retweet as you'd please. The update, which dropped on Tuesday, Oct. 20, is a temporary change for the platform in light of the upcoming presidential election on Tuesday, Nov. 3.

Usually, when you try to retweet a tweet on Twitter desktop, Twitter gives you two options: "Retweet" or "Quote Retweet." With the temporary change, any retweet is automatically a quote retweet, which means you'll see the compose comment box above the tweet you want to retweet. The social media platform explained the change to retweets in a blog post detailing election information efforts on Friday, Oct. 9.

Twitter implemented the change in an effort to combat misinformation and to encourage users to add a comment and give more consideration to their retweets during the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election. But now that you know why the update is here, you probably also want to know how to get back to retweeting.

If you don't want to quote tweet with a comment above your retweet, simple leave the text field blank and hit the "Retweet" button, and it will appear as a regular retweet on your timeline. If you want to add a comment, you can do so as you normally would with a quote tweet.

Before Twitter announced the update in a tweet on Wednesday, Oct. 21, there was some confusion, since the change began showing up on Twitter for desktop as early as Oct. 9 for some users. According to the blog, the retweet update will last through the end of the week of the election, which is on Tuesday, Nov. 3. Twitter may extend the feature if needed.

The initial user reaction was a mixed bag of confusion and dismay:

It's not clear if the retweet update is also on everyone's mobile app, but it may be rolling out. If you notice the retweet update there, you can use the same method to retweet without a comment.

Another temporary change is the removal of "liked by" and "followed by" recommendations in your timeline and notifications. These won't be gone forever, but leading up to the election, the social media platform wants to remove these since many people hit the "Like" button without giving the tweet more consideration.

Finally, Twitter is also removing any Trends in the "For You" tab in the United States that lack additional context. You'll now only get Trends with a description tweet or an article that tells you why something is trending. Its aim is to quickly inform users, and it's another step from Twitter to add more context to Trends.

As of publication, it remains unclear if the change to retweets will last longer than Election Week, but you can still retweet without commenting, thanks to the workaround.