Twitter will allow Politwoops to archive the tweets of politicians again

For those of you who aren’t familiar, Politwoops is a website that allows people to see all the stupid crap that politicians have said on Twitter, even if those tweets were deleted. It’s a brilliant service, and one that more people should be taking advantage of, but the problem is, the website isn’t able to archive deleted tweets anymore because Twitter doesn’t allow Politwoops to access it’s APIs. The company’s reasoning for this was understandable, but numerous organizations have rightly criticized it for the move, saying that transparency is more important than allowing politicians to remove posts. After months of discussions with relevant non-profit organizations, Twitter has finally decided to restore access to it’s APIs to Politwoops.

Political gaffes on Twitter will once again be preserved on the website Politwoops, according to an announcement from Twitter. The company blocked API access for Politwoops earlier this year, a move that apparently crippled the service’s ability to archive politicians’ deleted tweets. A number of open government and human rights groups (and not just the ones operating the various Politwoops sites in different countries) criticized the decision, arguing that a citizens’ right to information outweighs an “official’s right to retroactively edit.” Then in October, at Twitter’s Flight conference for developers, CEO Jack Dorsey both apologized for “the confusion” and hinted that Politwoops might be re-enabled, saying, “We have a responsibility to continue to power organizations who want to bring transparency like Politwoops.” Today, Twitter says it has reached an agreement with The Sunlight Foundation (which operates the Politwoops site in the US) and The Open State Foundation (which first developed the service). It doesn’t offer any details about the agreement,, but the gist is that Politwoops is coming back.