Have you ever sent out a Tweet that you wish you could take back? Of course you have! If you have a Twitter account, you’ve made a mistake at least once. The only problem is that deleting a Tweet can make you look silly – you know, for not owning up to your mistakes? In fact, deleting any kind of social media post is a serious no-no if you want to remain honest and avoid getting rid of any retweets or replies that your original Tweet may have received.

But, there’s no rule against striking out a Tweet. This is the concept that a team from Tokyo is working on: the strikethrough Tweet. The idea here is to strikethrough (like you would with a Word document) a Tweet, so that the Tweet still exists, but you aren’t getting rid of it forever – you’re just admitting to a mistake. Here’s how the strikethrough Tweet would work.

Mark As Error

It’s OK we all make mistakes. Admitting to those mistakes is another thing altogether, though. One excellent way to admit that you’ve made a mistake (and that you’re a human and not a robot) would be to use a “Mark As Error” button. If successful, the team of Tokyo developers will create this button for mass use. After clicking on the Mark As Error button, users would then see a simple line appear that crosses out any kind of Twitter mistake.

In turn, your Twitter followers would see that strikethrough and realize that you’ve changed your mind or made a mistake. Sending out a Tweet with a strikethrough could also cause some very interesting conversation if the Tweet that you are crossing out is that of a widely controversial opinion. In fact, companies could find great ways to cause some buzz over crossed out Tweets, and there’s no doubt that crossing out a Tweet would eventually become ironic (hashtag #strikethrough, anyone?). In short, this is a great idea that may eventually show up as part of your Twitter button options.

When Will the Idea Appear?

At the moment, there’s no word as to when the strikethrough option will appear. However, it seems as though Twitter might be working on something new, since Twitter hasn’t actually gone through an update in months. Could that something be a Mark As Error button? Quite possibly; and if this is the case, you could see this option appear without the next few months. Unlike completely deleting a Tweet, using a Mark As Error button makes a great deal of sense, and it’s a button that I’m betting a lot of people will get a ton of use out of.

If Twitter does, indeed, adopt this button, will you use it? Can you think of Tweets that you sent out that you wish you could have erased? If you’re tempted to use that delete button, just remember that getting rid of any social media post is a bad idea (unless, of course, you can be sure that nobody actually saw your original post!). A good idea, on the other hand, would be a Mark As Error button, right?