Facebook Now Lets Everyone Unsend Messages For 10 Minutes

Facebook has finally made good on its promise to let users unsend chats after TechCrunch discovered Mark Zuckerberg had secretly retracted some of his Facebook Messages from recipients. From a report: Today Facebook Messenger globally rolls out "Remove for everyone" to help you pull back typos, poor choices, embarrassing thoughts, or any other message. For up to 10 minutes after sending a Facebook Message, the sender can tap on it and they'll find the delete button has been replaced by "Remove for you", but there's now also a "Remove for everyone" option that pulls the message from recipients' inboxes. They'll see an alert that you removed a message in its place, and can still flag the message to Facebook who'll retain the content briefly to see if its reported.

The feature could make people more comfortable having honest conversations or using Messenger for flirting since they can second guess what they send, but it won't let people change ancient history. The company abused its power by altering the history of Zuckerberg's Facebook's messages in a way that email or other communication mediums wouldn't allow.

Maybe it's me ...

[Syncerus]

This sounds like a great way of spinning a 10 minute delay in delivery time. 10 minute undo == 10 minute transmission delay to enable message batching and caching.

Re:Maybe it's me ...

[DickBreath]

10 minutes is enough time to light a forest fire of Fake News. And then un-light it back at the source. Meanwhile the forest continues to burn.

Re:

[sysrammer]

Yep. It will be gamed.

Are you sure you want to Change History Comrade?

[goombah99]

[Da] or [Nyet]

I don't think this puts in a delay. I think it lets you retract it. The end user could screen shot it, but the official message is deleted.

Re:

[x0ra]

and of course, /. comments are stuck in the early 90's where you need to have an explicit newline. This is retarded...

Re:

[DickBreath]

I think /. is stuck in the LATE 90's. And that is NINTEEN-90s.

Re:

[DickBreath]

I think you mean Carriage Return + Linefeed. Linefeed just rolls the platen up one line, but does not return the carriage to the left hand position.

Re:

[sysrammer]

Just send an octal 012 code. Nubz.

Stalkers and other Bad Actors

[sycodon]

Make the threats, then unsend them.

Threat sent.
No evidence.

Re:

[DickBreath]

No evidence.
No crime.

Different set of problems arise

[Maelwryth]

A problem with recindable messages is that someone can post something threatening or false and then remove it after the person or people had seen it. Facebook can remove it, your brain can't. This will probably lead to a whole new set of problems.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard, just ask. I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS. People just submitted it. I don't know why. They "trust me." Dumb fucks.

Re:

[DickBreath]

Maybe people (or a browser extension, or FB reading mode) should not read things until they are at least ten minutes old. That would keep them safe from Bad Things(tm). This could be called the Facebook Safe Spaces mode where nobody can be offended or encounter unusual or uncomfortable ideas or opposite points of view.

Re:

[Known Nutter]

Threats of violence are now "uncomfortable ideas" or "opposite points of view"???
Br Fuckballs.

Re:

[Shotgun]

Yes. Unfortunately, colleges have construed points of view and even facts that threaten their worldview as violence. The school boy's MAGA hats were construed as a threat of violence.

Wish it weren't true, but you literally can't make this stuff up.

Re:

[Shotgun]

Well, even the summary said that FB will hold on to a copy of the message so that their thought police can look over it.

I still laugh at Windows recycle bin

[AndyKron]

So now comes the FaceBook message archive app to save those nasty messages before they disappear.

All messaging should have this option

[Krishnoid]

Seems like it would be a good idea for all electronic communication to have a configurable delay/undo -- you're done with the message, hit send, and then reread and realize it could be more intelligible, complete, better tone, etc, and then want to change something. Sometimes it just looks different once it's sent.

I'M THE KING OF THE WORLD!!!!!

[laxr5rs]

Wait... is there a Slashdot unsend?

Re:

[sysrammer]

I find your website fascinating and was wondering if you have a newsletter that I could subscribe to? I clicked on all the buttons on the site but couldn't seem to find one.

tia

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion