Twitter muzzles Politwoops politician-tracking accounts by Lisa Vaas.
From the post:
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.
…
Part of Twitter’s explanation reads as follows:
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.
Do you wonder if Twitter will use that justification when the NSA comes knocking?
I have to imagine that Twitter comes down on the side of the my-edited-history folks of the EU and recently the UK.
I find the idea that digital records will shift under our feet far more terrifying than tweets being “immutable and irrevocable.”
You?