On Tuesday, Aug 25, micro-blogging site Twitter has deleted a total of thirty-one accounts made to track politician's deleted tweets, according to a BBC report. The series of accounts are said to have violated the network's rules for apps that are connected to Twitter's services. Twitter then sends out alerts to users that the accounts have been deleted and are not anymore functioning as intended.
The accounts are managed by the Open State Foundation and the group has been open in criticising Twitter's move. Arjan El Fassed, the group's director, said that the tweets they have been able to track so far, which have also been deleted, are "typos which are not very interesting". However, he indicated that some tweets really do show what the politicians' principles are. El Fassed added that Open State Foundation is looking into filing charges against Twitter and ways to bypass the block.
Twitter claimed that the group has violated the terms of use the network has set for its service. Twitter has indicated that the API may not be used to track deleted tweets. A Twitter spokesperson told BBC that, "Recently we identified several services that use the feature we built that allow for the deletion of tweets to instead archive and highlight them.
The spokesperson further added that the micro-blogging site has informed accounts that take advantage of this feature that they have broken the rule and that their accounts will not be given access to Twitter's API anymore. The right to delete what users deem embarrassing is highlighted by Jim Killock, executive director of the Open Rights Group.
He told BBC that Twitter users have the right to delete what they don't want the public to see. At the same time, Twitter also has the right to implement its rules. Killock was quick to add that tweets are written for a user's Twitter community to see. The audience also has the right to "record things they think are in the public interest, especially politicians."
