@kylewm2 hence I replied to the source for context. The brackets […] indicate removal from a quote. More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis Specifically: “If an ellipsis is meant to represent an omission, square brackets must surround the ellipsis to make it clear that there was no pause in the original quote: [ . . . ]. Currently, the MLA has removed the requirement of brackets in its style handbooks. However, some maintain that the use of brackets is still correct because it clears confusion.” Since we often use ellipses to truncate POSSE tweets, it’s better to always use […] when elliding inside a quote, to disambiguate that the ellipsis was not in the original. And square brackets are also the convention for indicating quoter edits to the content of a quotation, such as insertion of implied words, substitutions for pronouns etc.

@kylewm2 hence I replied to the source for context.
The brackets […] indicate removal from a quote.
More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis

Specifically:
“If an ellipsis is meant to represent an omission, square brackets must surround the ellipsis to make it clear that there was no pause in the original quote: [ . . . ]. Currently, the MLA has removed the requirement of brackets in its style handbooks. However, some maintain that the use of brackets is still correct because it clears confusion.”

Since we often use ellipses to truncate POSSE tweets, it’s better to always use […] when elliding inside a quote, to disambiguate that the ellipsis was not in the original. And square brackets are also the convention for indicating quoter edits to the content of a quotation, such as insertion of implied words, substitutions for pronouns etc.