Open State Foundation Claims Twitter Cut Off API Access for Diplotwoops, Politwoops Websites

Twitter cut off the Open State Foundation’s (OSF) access Friday to Twitter’s application programming interface (API) for its Politwoops and Diplotwoops websites, which archive diplomats’ and politicians’ deleted tweets, Open State Foundation said Sunday. Twitter suspended API access for the U.S. version of Politwoops in May (see 1506040057). Politwoops' more than 30 other versions for national and regional governments and the European Parliament continued to operate after the U.S. Politwoops website lost access to the Twitter API. OSF began operating Politwoops in 2010 in the Netherlands. Twitter’s decision to suspend the remaining sites’ access to API “followed a ‘thoughtful internal deliberation and close consideration of a number of factors’ and that it doesn’t distinguish between users,” OSF said in a blog post. “Twitter wrote: ‘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.’” Twitter didn’t comment.