Twitter has disabled a group of websites that archived deleted tweets from politicians and diplomats worldwide. The Open State Foundation (OSF) said that Twitter turned off API access to the websites, known collectively as Politwoops and Diplowoops, on Friday, Aug. 21, out of privacy concerns for its users.
“'Imagine how nerve-racking—terrifying, even—tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable,” Twitter wrote to the OSF. “No one user is more deserving of that ability than another. Indeed, deleting a tweet is an expression of the user’s voice.”
Politwoops had its U.S. branch shut down by Twitter in May, and on Friday the crackdown was applied to the websites that operated in the remaining 30 countries across five continents, which included Argentina, Canada, Croatia, India, Turkey, the Vatican, as well as members of the European Union.
“What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history,” Arjan El Fassed, the director of OSF, said in a statement.
