Retweets

A retweet is a form of content sharing on social media in which one user reposts another user’s post to their own followers, typically preserving attribution to the original author. Retweets are used to promote, endorse, or simply pass along content believed to be of interest, and they help extend the reach of a message beyond the original audience.

On Twitter, a standard retweet republishes the original post to the sharer’s timeline without adding new text. A separate action, often called a quote tweet or retweet with comment, lets the user add their own words, media, or context alongside the shared post.

Historically, users often prefixed posts with "RT" to indicate a repost before official support for the feature. Twitter introduced a native Retweet function in 2009, and in 2015 added Quote Tweets to enable commentary alongside shared content.

Retweets influence information diffusion and engagement by exposing content to a broader audience. They can aid rapid spread of news and ideas but also contribute to the amplification of misinformation or low-credibility content. Platforms generally preserve attribution, and some allow users to limit or disable resharing for specific posts.