FOX 32 Chicago Interviews Daliah Saper about Twitter’s New Feature: Fleets

On November 18th, 2020, FOX 32 interviewed social media attorney Daliah Saper about Fleets, a new feature just introduced by Twitter. The social media platform describes Fleets as a way for users to share their fleeting thoughts, as Fleets automatically disappear 24 hours after a user posts them. Daliah noted that the idea of a fleeting, “ephemeral post” is not a new one, and is similar to features provided by other platforms like Instagram and Snapchat.

When asked whether the new feature can help re-engage users who are concerned with censorship or negative reactions to their tweets, Daliah replied that it’s likely, since the ability to Fleet provides comfort and eases the process of removing posts. Additional features and options for users are always a plus, and Daliah also highlighted the fact that the feature tested well in other countries.

While the key benefit for users is not having to go back and manually delete posts, Daliah emphasized that “nothing is truly invisible after 24 hours.” Other users can still screenshot, reference and talk about content posted on Twitter, whether by Tweet or via the new Fleet functionality. From both a legal and user-experience perspective, all of the same issues with posting social media content remain.