Sophos Cloud Optix
When Twitter killed embarrassing-political-tweet archive Politwoops in June, the site’s founders probably looked to the 30 other countries where it was running and said, well, it might just be a matter of time before those are strangled in the crib.
Consider them strangled.
Twitter told the Open State Foundation on Friday that it had suspended API access to Diplotwoops and all remaining Politwoops sites in those 30 countries.
The Open State Foundation started the first transparency “woops” site in the Netherlands in 2010 and has since brought it to 30 countries, including Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, the UK, France, and the Vatican.
The archive automatically monitored politicians’ Twitter profiles for deleted tweets and plucked them from the bin to make them visible for use by journalists or anybody else who wanted transparency into politicians’ flip-flopping.
When it launched in 2014, Diplotwoops did the same for the deleted tweets of diplomats and embassies.
The Open State Foundation didn’t care about trivial edits like fixed typos. Rather, it only tracked backtracking.
An example was when US soldier and former Taliban POW Bowe Bergdahl was released last year and politicians tweeted their “welcome home” messages and their thanks to a “true American hero.”
Those messages blinked out of view on Twitter sometime between Bergdahl’s Rose Garden ceremony at the White House and the US Army charging him with desertion and misbehaviour before the enemy.
They didn’t disappear completely, though: Politwoops kept them alive.
According to a statement from the Open State Foundation, Twitter said that its decision to suspend access to Politwoops followed a “thoughtful internal deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors” and that it doesn’t distinguish between political and non-political users.
This is what Twitter wrote:
Imagine how nerve-racking - terrifying, even - tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable? No one user is more deserving of that ability than another. Indeed, deleting a tweet is an expression of the user’s voice.
The Open State Foundation begs to differ.
Arjan El Fassed, director of Open State Foundation in the Netherlands, has said all along that politicians should have a lesser degree of privacy for the sake of transparency into their shifting views:
What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. These tweets were once posted and later deleted.
What politicians say in public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected politicians can change without notice.
As it stands, politicians in these countries can heave a sigh of relief and return to editing their histories without Politwoops looking over their shoulders and tattling on them:
- Argentina
- Australia
- Canada
- Chile
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Portugal
- Egypt
- Estonia
- France
- Greece
- India
- Ireland
- Italy
- South Korea
- Macedonia
- Norway
- Belgium
- United Kingdom
- Germany
- The Netherlands
- Sweden
- Spain
- Switzerland
- Tunisia
- Turkey
- The Vatican
- European Parliament members
Twitter’s first action, against the US Politwoops, mystified its founders.
After all, Twitter had tolerated the sites for years and had even voiced support for the mission, in spite of Twitter’s developer agreement explicitly forbidding publicly displaying deleted tweets:
Only surface Twitter activity as it surfaced on Twitter. For example, your Service should execute the unfavorite and delete actions by removing all relevant Content, not by publicly displaying to other users that the Tweet is no longer favorited or has been deleted.
This doesn’t spell the end of the matter. El Fassed said that the foundation is exploring its legal and technical options:
We believe that what public officials, especially politicians, publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. Although Twitter can restrict access to its API, it will not be able to keep deleted tweets by elected public officials in the dark.
He declined to describe what technical options the foundation may turn to, but possibilities include automated screenshots or screen-scraping to grab the HTML content from Twitter without using special developer access.
Setting up automated grabs like that would, of course, be an outright nose-thumbing to Twitter’s desire to treat all users, be they politicians or not, equally.
Which is more important? Political transparency, or an individual’s right to be able to edit their embarrassing Twitter history – regardless of whether they hold public office?
Your thoughts are welcome in the comments section below.
Image of Twitter homepage though magnifying glass courtesy of Gil C / Shutterstock.com.
I can see both sides here. As another example, say one of the politician’s staffers wanted to send a little naughty tweet to a significant other on a personal account, then realized after sending it that it went out on the official politician account. Oops, delete fast. Except now this service has it, and the tough-on-everything politician has to explain the meaning of the “Fluffykins” tweet.
If I had to make the decision for Twitter, I’d say to allow Poitwoops to do what they do. Politicians more than anyone should understand that public statements are remembered forever. However, voters should also realize that politicians are human, and deleting the Bergdahl tweet isn’t a case of a politician hiding secret support for deserters. It was just a tweet that was no longer appropriate in light of new information.
Mostly in agreement, but have to say that your use of the Bergdahl case as an example was a poor choice. They made a big political show of him, and they should have to cope with the political fallout that followed later. It was totally political, not a personal “oops” as you described in your first paragraph.
Everyone, including Twitter and politicians will eventually have to come to terms with the simple fact that once something is posted on the Internet, it is forever. Privacy is being eroded right and left, and there is nothing we can do about it. We may be able to slow progress down, but we can’t stop it.
Once upon a time, anything you did in the streets when no one was around was effectively hidden. Now cameras are sprouting everywhere, and will continue to do so. Places to hide are diminishing. Technology is eroding privacy and its progress is inexorable. Get over it.