Two weeks ago, the US version of Politwoops stopped being updated. The more than 30 versions of Politwoops with deleted tweets by politicians in 30 other countries, run by Open State Foundation, are still up and running.
Since 2010, Open State Foundation launched Politwoops in the Netherlands. Since then it has tracked tweets politicians delete from their Twitter accounts in over 30 countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom and since 2012 helped Sunlight Foundation launch Politwoops in the United States.
Two weeks ago, the US version run by Sunlight Foundation stopped being updated. On June 3, Twitter informed Sunlight Foundation that access to Twitter API for their Politwoops site will not be restored. The more than 30 versions of Politwoops with deleted tweets by politicians in 30 other countries, run by Open State Foundation, are still up and running.
Politwoops, more than 30 countries
The list of countries where Politwoops is active includes Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Croatia, Denmark, Portugal, Egypt, Estland, France, Greece, India, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Macedonia, Norway, Belgium, United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Sweden, Spain and Switserland, Tunesia, Turkey and the Vatican. Politwoops also collects deleted tweets by members of the European Parliament.
In most countries Politwoops follows elected members of national parliaments. In the Netherlands Politwoops also tracks elected members of municipal and regional councils.
Tweets are part of parliamentary history
Politwoops has been extensively used by journalists around the world. What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record and Twitter became an increasingly important part of how politicians communicate with the public.
Arjan El Fassed, director of Open State Foundation: ‘Even when tweets are deleted, it’s part of parliamentary history. 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.’
Open State Foundation is monitoring developments in coordination with our partners, including Sunlight Foundation, journalists and other users. We will continuously engage with others to keep public messages from elections politicians visible.