Slashdot Mirror
Twitter Blocks API Access For Sites Monitoring Politicians' Deleted Tweets
An anonymous reader writes: Politwoops is/was a site that monitored the Twitter feeds of politicians and posted any tweets that those politicians later deleted. On May 15, Twitter suspended API access for the U.S. version of Politwoops, and now they've blocked access to the versions of Politwoops running in 30 other countries. Twitter has also blocked access for similar site Diplotwoops, which focused on deleted tweets from diplomats and embassies. Twitter said, "'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." Arjan El Fassed, director of the Open State Foundation, which developed Politwoops, disagrees: "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."
If there is one thing politicians need less of, it's personal responsibility.
Imagine a world where politicians could be judged not only by what they say in front of the reporters, but also by their actions and behaviour outside of PR-dictated statements. Sounds horrible, right? It's a good thing Twitter has stepped in to make sure that doesn't happen.
Sourceforge with it's crapware, now twitter (who once helped spread several revolutions in the middle east), is helping filthy scumbag politicians? I don't want to live on this planet anymore.
Our long nightmare of people being punished for things they actually said is over!.
Thank you Twitter.
Now, we can finally get back to using twitter to mob-shame some poor guy that was overheard making a joke about pedophilia that some moron thought was almost heard clearly from 100 ft away on a crowded train station.
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
"Imagine how nerve-racking â" terrifying, even â" tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable?"
Umm... you mean like all other speech?
There is no "undo" button for life Twitter. Deal with it.
I don't even know why the "Delete" button exists in Twitter, because it is stupid and doesn't do much. Various clients allow you to ignore it totally and keep the deleted tweet in your cache.
It's part of the API ToS you sign up for when using the Twitter API. If you get a delete event, you're supposed to remove the referenced tweet.
Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
It'll email you not only the date and time of the message - any message - from certain individuals or using certain hashtags, it'll send you the entire content of he message as it goes out - even if it's later deleted, it's still in your inbox.
What're Twitter going to do, block Google??
Political debates have me rolling my eyes so much I think I got optical whiplash. I should sue. - Foamy The Squirrel
I read the statement linked in the summary and immediately wondered, what was the deleted tweet that brought the pressure on Twitter to do this?
I'm pretty sure there has to be one. Either that or someone with a lot of influence was worried that they might tweet carelessly.
Fuck the api: scrape, scrape, scrape.
The first sentence of the first section of Twitter's own TOS:
"You are responsible for your use of the Services, for any Content you post to the Services, and for any consequences thereof."
Perhaps this move by Twitter comes after some external political pressure, because it's certainly not something that Twitter's own policies deem as necessary.
Politicians are not any old user. They sought power and we want to track them; they have their thumb on our neck artery, and can press at will, especially in many of these other countries.
It is important to know their thoughts -- before handlers and lawyers buff them up or delete them.
Shame on you.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Think of that. A politician can say something, then thanks to the intertoobz, he or she never ever said what he or she ever said. That deleted tweet says more about reality and the politician's actual thoughts than any prepared speech.
Has the Ministry of Truth weighed in on this? I bellyfeel doubleunplusgood!
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Political or not, keeping deleted tweets is against the Terms of Service. No need to jump up and down and cry foul just because the summary mentioned political tweet apps that were shutdown. Nobody is supposed to be doing it.
Jump up and down if other clients are doing it and not getting banned.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I guess someone from the Ministry of Truth complained. Rewriting history is hard when all the old editions are laying around.
Its not stopping the common core people from trying though.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Twitter said, "'Imagine how nerve-racking – terrifying, even – tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable?
And why shouldn't it be terrifying? If you don't mean it then don't say it. If you said something stupid or embarrassing then explain it but own what you said. They SHOULD be careful about what they say in public just like when they say something to a TV camera or a reporter. I've said things on the internet that in hindsight I could have said better but the fact is that I said it and I have to own it.
In other news, Hillary Clinton has declared that going forward all of her official correspondence will be carried out via Twitter.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
a lot of these are tweeted by interns because the actual politicians are working.
Handing a critical communication tool to an intern is a pretty dumb decision. But if the intern then says something stupid on the politician's behalf then the politician needs to own that because it is the actions of those who work for you are your responsibility.
no reason to jump on someone for saying the wrong thing on a slow news day
I don't care how fast or slow the news day is. If they said something or allowed it to be said on their behalf then they need to own it.
That is what the internet is supposed to be! Absolutely, positively indelible is what we have to make it. And politicians are the best targets. I hope there is another way. I see plain old screen capture a lot of times. But whatever it takes, I'm for it. Twitter is practicing propaganda for the politicians' benefit. Let's work around it the best we can.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
How many libraries of congress is that!?!? Oh wait, we're not talking about network traffic here. But, we ARE talking about archiving and searching through tweets. So the question comes up: the library of congress is archiving all public tweets. Do they honor the fact they're deleted off of the source material? And how easy would it be to search the library's archive vs Twitter's archive?
https://www.facebook.com/notes...
... all the sites have to do is collect information under a different name then copy paste the info to the new site.
What is twitter going to do.
And even if they suspend API access entirely... all someone has to do is write a program that checks the twitter accounts. download everything, and then notes whenever a tweet disappears.
I don't know what twitter is thinking.
Censorship... which is what they're attempting to do... is generally a losing proposition on the internet.
I've decided to stop wasting my time responding to AC trolls/sockpuppets... so if you want a response from me... login.
Twitter is critical communication tool?
Yes. In today's world Twitter is important. So is Facebook. So is email. Etc. Things said on twitter are just as important as those things said through any other medium, particularly for a politician. If they underestimate the important then that is their own stupid fault.
This is the #1 reason I think DRM is bad. As all video moves to the net at some point all news will be DRMed and easily deletable by those in power
A simple site scrape is enough. The API just makes it easier.
Gee, and I was thinking defining Twitter as a "critical communication tool" was the dumb decision here.
ANY communication tool is critical for a politician. The fact that most of what happens on Twitter is banal nonsense is irrelevant. The job of a politician, especially when seeking office, is communication with their electorate. If they choose to use Twitter then it is just as important as any other medium. Furthermore Twitter is hugely popular and widely used so it is a very useful too (if used well) to reach more voters. Politicians who ignore twitter and/or use it badly will find themselves at a disadvantage to those who use it well.
They need to rename the "Delete" button to "Memory Hole."
Thankfully, you don't have to use the API. The Weboob project provides a Python API and does not use the official Twitter API to do so.
Fuck twitter. I only use it to swear at politicians.
We have always been at war with Eastasia. I challenge anyone to find a tweet where I have ever claimed otherwise.
Still monitor the api, screenshot the "tweets" as they come in, auto retweet eveything they say and auto tweet when a previous message was "deleted". Then its more of a public log file. They can't delete RT's can they?
Can you imagine the sheer horror of politicians who would be forced to think about what they say before letting it escape their mouths or before they click the submit button on their computers?
If they have an intern sending their tweets, are these people so short on time that they don't have time to personally view and approve messages before they are broadcast to the entire world? If they don't understand the consequences of using a communications tool, perhaps they shouldn't be using it? Or perhaps they should be employing some more mature and trustworthy interns? Or perhaps ones that can explain the Streisand effect to them?
So now tweets can be abused as test balloons to "test the waters", so to speak. Is some atrocity that I have planned going to be noticed? Are people going to object? I'll just tweet it and if a shitstorm brews, whoopsie, erase. Let's wait a little longer 'til they're distracted by something else.
Yeah, that's what we need more of. More politicians spewing random shit to see what's going to stick and how far the FUD campaign has progressed so we swallow their tripe.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Years ago I used an email system that had a retract option. But all it would do is send a specially crafted email that requested that the user delete the original email. Nothing was more effective at drawing peoples attention to a mistake.
Perish the thought. After all, if I say something to someone personally that I later regret I can naturally take it back entirely so that they forget all about it and I can adjust the delivery of my agenda to them such that it causes less offence.
"Imagine how nerve-racking [sic] – terrifying, even – tweeting would be if it was immutable and irrevocable?" Don't have to imagine -- Say the wrong thing today or make a joke nobody gets, and you've got a self-righteous, over-caffeinated lynch mob of simplistic-thinking morons doxxing you, getting you fired or forcing your business to close etc.
Coming up we have other breaking news. The earth has mass, and studies show that people sometimes do and say things they wish they hadn't. Wait a moment, this just in: Barbara Streisand sues photographer Kenneth Adelman for violation of privacy, because his aerial photography to track coastal erosion included her Malibu home in one of his 12,000 photographs. Before Streisand filed her lawsuit, the image was viewed on the photographer's web site six times, two of which were by Streisand's attorneys, and within one month of the suit, more than 420,000 people had seen the image. We'll have more on these breaking stories when we come back.
Some days it's just not worth chewing through the restraints.
The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit, Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.
Omar Khayyám
Paraphrasing: Imagine how nerve-racking – terrifying, even – posting to Slashdot would be if it was immutable and irrevocable?
This is idiotic. Once you say something, it has been said. Thinking you can hide your output is ridiculous, and could only be hatched in the minds of liars.
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.