The social network platform may say that it is acting out of best interest but Twitter has been slammed for suspending access in 30 more countries to Diplotwoops and Politwoops.
Politwoops began life in the Netherlands in 2010 screening deleted messages by diplomats and embassies around the world. Since then it has been further developed by Open State Foundation, spreading into 30 countries, from Egypt, Tunisia, Greece, the UK and France to the Vatican and the European Parliament. In all of these locations it automatically monitored the profiles of elected members of national parliaments for deleted tweets and made them visible. The Open State Foundation launched Diplotwoops in 2014.
The censure action by Twitter began on 15 May 2015 when it suspended API access for the US version of Politwoops for displaying deleted tweets of US lawmakers. On 21 August, Open State Foundation was informed by Twitter that it suspended API access to Diplotwoops and all remaining Politwoops sites in 30 countries. These include 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 and Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey and the Vatican. It also includes members of the European Parliament.
The Open State Foundation says that was informed by the social media firm said that its decision to pull the plug followed a “thoughtful internal deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors’ and that it doesn’t distinguish between users.” It quoted Twitter as saying: “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 poured scorn on Twitter’s statement. “What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history,” said Open State Foundation director Arjan El Fassed. “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.”
The Open State Foundation assured its fans that it would continue to explore and engage with others to keep public messages by elected politicians visible. It added that the public has rights guaranteed under many constitutions to access information that was made at least temporarily available to the public.