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In Reversal, Twitter to Let Politwoops Collect Politicians’ Deleted Tweets

Politwoops will once again be able to collect and publish the deleted tweets of American politicians after Twitter announced Thursday that it reached a deal with the organizations that run the website.

Twitter revoked Politwoops’s access to its API, the back-end code used by developers of other applications, earlier this year. Christopher Gates, the president of the Sunlight Foundation, a transparency group that runs the website in partnership with the Open State Foundation and Access Now, wrote at the time that Twitter’s decision “truly mystified” him.

Politwoops has helped shine a light on apparent attempts by politicians to distance themselves from their remarks on Twitter. Perhaps the most notable case was when several politicians deleted tweets praising the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl by captors in Afghanistan after questions arose about the soldier’s past actions.

Mr. Gates said the Sunlight Foundation was notified when it started Politwoops in 2012 that its use of the API violated Twitter’s terms of service, but after implementing a “layer of journalistic judgment” they were able to continue operating “with blessings from Twitter.”

But in a statement published by Gawker in June, Twitter wrote that “preserving deleted Tweets violates our developer agreement.”

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Twitter revoked Politwoops’s access to its API earlier this year.Credit...Dado Ruvic/Reuters

It added: “Honoring the expectation of user privacy for all accounts is a priority for us, whether the user is anonymous or a member of Congress.”

At a conference in October, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, seemed to indicate that Politwoops’s access to the API might be restored. “We have a responsibility to continue to empower organizations that bring more transparency to public dialogue, such as Politwoops,” he said at the time.

Mr. Dorsey, who helped create the social network in 2006 and was ousted in 2008, returned as the company’s chief executive just weeks before the October conference. Twitter has been struggling with revenue and user growth this year.

The statement from Twitter on Thursday did not elaborate on why the API access for Politwoops was restored.

“We look forward to continuing our work with these important organizations, and using Twitter to bring more transparency to public dialogue,” the statement said.

No timeline was provided for when the website will be operational again, but the Sunlight Foundation said it will be working on it “in the coming days and weeks.”

The Open State Foundation said in a statement that Politwoops would be revived in the more than 30 countries where it had operated and may be expanded to other countries.

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