Last summer Twitter shut down the API access to Politwoops, an archived network of deleted tweets from politicians, to outcries of dismay from open-government advocates. The shutdown, which occurred first in the US, but soon applied to all 30+ participating countries, was accompanied with the following statement from Twitter officials: “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 tweet revival tool, developed by the Sunlight Foundation, had until the suspension in May been a [...]
