Politwoops has returned to Twitter just in time for the election year.
The social media site reached an agreement with the Sunlight Foundation and the Open State Foundation — two government accountability organizations — to bring the website, which tracks deleted tweets from politicians, back.
Holding public officials accountable with Twitter and Politwoops https://t.co/6JFygAcJJe
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) December 31, 2015
“Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make,” Jenn Topper, the Sunlight Foundation’s communications director, said in a statement, “and we’re glad that we’ve been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the U.S. and internationally.”
When Twitter pulled the plug on the site in June, it said it was because the website violated its terms of use and the collection of tweets was a privacy issue. Now, its storing of tweets, both published and deleted, will resume in both the United States and abroad in more than 30 countries.
At an October conference, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey spoke about the social media giant’s relation with government transparency, hinting that the decision to shut down Politwoops wasn’t final.
“We have a responsibility to continue to empower organizations that bring more transparency to public dialogue, such as Politwoops,” he said at the conference.
“This agreement is great news for those who believe that the world needs more transparency. Our next step is now to continue and expand our work to enable the public to hold public officials accountable for their public statements,” Arjan El Fassed, director of Open State Foundation said in a statement.
Read Twitter’s announcement here.
The announcements from The Sunlight Foundation and The Open State Foundation can be viewed here and here, respectively.
