Politicians' Deleted Tweets Could Come Back to Haunt them Thanks to Politwoops Website
Twitter is allowing the Politwoops website to operate again. Politwoops is a website that archives deleted tweets of politicians and then publishes them.
Politicians might want to be extra careful this election season because Politwoops is once again allowed to archive all of their tweets, even the deleted ones, TechCrunch reports.
Politwoops was blocked from accessing Twitter's API earlier this year which led to the website not being able to archive politicians' tweets.
Several open government and human rights groups said that taking Politwoops' access to these tweets away was not fair. They argued that people had the right to see these tweets more than politicians had the rights to delete or edit the tweets.
In October, at Twitter's Flight conference, company CEO Jack Dorsey apologized for "the confusion." Dorsey hinted that Politwoops could be allowed access to Twitter's API again.
"We have a responsibility to continue to power organizations who want to bring transparency like Politwoops," Dorsey said.
Thursday, Twitter said it had reached an agreement with Politwoops operator in the U.S., the Sunlight Foundation and The Open State Foundation, the developer of the website's technology. The terms of the agreement are unknown but it means Politwoops is coming back for 2016's elections.
"Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make, and we're glad that we've been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the US and internationally," said Sunlight Foundation communications director Jenn Topper in a statement.
Most politicians use social media to engage with the public, but sometimes they (or their social media team) post things they end up regretting and the tweets are quickly deleted. With Politwoops, quickly deleted tweets are preserved for all to see.
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