"Twitter's deleted tweets rule is very simple: When the platform flagged deleted tweets, third parties with API access were supposed take the tweet down from their sites. Politwoops used its access in the opposite way Twitter intended, by using the alerts as a way to keep track of and share deleted tweets. So it was only a matter of time before Twitter had to make a decision about enforcing, or changing, its own rules.
In May, Twitter decided to stick to its guns with Politwoops, enraging many political reporters and offending government transparency advocates, who never expected the decision from Twitter, a company otherwise known for supporting transparency. The decision to cut off API access, however, wasn't broadly applied to international groups doing similar work until August. We don't know why Twitter took so long to enforce its decision between Politwoops and the similar international projects, nor why it decided to let them flourish in breach of developer usage terms in the first place...
The decision, however, opened the door for future content takedown policies regarding all deleted tweets displayed in any form, like, most simply, a screenshot. A screenshot taken on a laptop, in terms of recording content, the same thing as another similar screenshot accessible via API. If Twitter revokes access to developers who record deleted content, it could someday expand that thinking to rules that govern regular users on laptops or phones. Like you...
Politwoops' shutdown points to a bigger question on the horizon: Who gets to regulate and change the record of online speech? Should the internet accurately reflect modern society, or should the internet be a revised record of our past?"
(the authors have a clear opinion to the answer to that question)
I think this is important; there is this weird, intense thing about openness and vulnerability and access and privacy that is happening right now. I think we are currently setting the rules for a new version of how human beings relate to and form communities with one another, using this social tool that is the internet; we need some set of what is polite for us to do to others, and what we can expect in these social environments.
We have an unprecedented opportunity to record information about ourselves, except its often not really for our own use, it's mostly in contexts where that information is going to be shared with other people (either with a social network that might be public, or a private company, and then sometimes the government). And we also have the opportunity to have these anonymous (or, really, semi-anonymous) versions of ourselves in all sorts of different communities. And we have this huge amount of control over what is put on the internet (we get to describe ourselves and post only certain pictures and describe only certain parts of our day) while simultaneously having no control over how it is going to be used (and, very often, a lack of awareness that a given action is going to lead to information being recorded and then used).
So, I think we're feeling this responsibility to curate because we have the tools - but also this intense vulnerability and absence of control. And that contradiction is creating a lot of uncertainty and anxiety. And at least two podcasts.
Related: Be careful what you google; Wikipedia on open science; jenny cam Reply All
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