No More Disappearing Wieners: Politwoops Archives Deleted Politician Tweets
The Sunlight Foundation today announces the launch of Politwoops, a silly name for a site that exists solely to repost any tweets any politician has deleted from his or her Twitter feed.
The Sunlight Foundation is a nonprofit organization “that uses the power of the Internet to catalyze greater government openness and transparency, and provides new tools and resources for media and citizens, alike,” their site states. They’ve helped fund groups like the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation.
While the idea might seem clever, actually visiting the feed shows a collection of seemingly harmless political tweets that have been deleted for unknown reason with no helpful context. Was there a broken link? Was it an accidental double-post? Rep. Justin Amash shows up in the feed for deleting a congratulatory tweet to Texas U.S. Senate candidate Ted Cruz. No idea why. Minnesota Montana Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg has already cleverly manipulated Politwoops by tweeting “If you think twitter mistakes on #politwhoops are bad, just wait until you see the regulatory mistakes of the Obama Administration!” and then deleting his comment to make it appear on the site.
It’s a useful tool (you can click on any politician and see all his or her deleted tweets on one page), but don’t expect to see any more wieners on it anytime soon. Politicians have turned Twitter into just another PR machine.
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Minnesota Republican Congressman Denny Rehberg has already cleverly manipulated Politwoops by tweeting “If you think twitter mistakes on #politwhoops are bad, just wait until you see the regulatory mistakes of the Obama Administration!” and then deleting his comment to make it appear on the site.
More likely a staffer but that is pretty clever.
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I thought teh twitters were archived in the Library of Congress.
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People still read twitter feeds? Maybe they're trying to pretend twitter will one day, some day, pay off for its investors.
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You don't count as a real person if you don't spend all your time engaging in social networking logorrhea.
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Don't be bitter because you only had three followers, Hugh, and two of them were your mom.
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Being unfollowed by Scott Baio was a dark day for me.
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Getting drunk on Listerine and tweeting "Chachi was a pussy compared to the Fonz" wasn't too bright, dude.
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Poitwrerp fans can only pray that Marion Barry never deletes any tweets, lest they be doomed to witness the stupidity of uber stupidity.
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Did I mispell that... polititwerps?, was that it? Damn, this Devassa Tropical Lager is righteous brew...
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I'm puzzled by its continued existence as well, but people have been expecting it to disappear for years now and it just gets bigger. Maybe there's something at work we don't understand.
Of course, it's entirely possible that like other unprofitable technologies of the past, the government buys them out to keep it going for their own purposes. In this case, propaganda.
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Denny Rehberg is rep for Montana.
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Corrected!
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This just in on Politwoops:
Dem deh dirty Asians, we gots do sumpin about dem mofos
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Is that you, Papa?
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Politicians have turned Twitter into just another PR machine.
Hmmm.... Twitter has always been a PR Machine for media and business. Politicians just figured it out.
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I just tweet sports talk. Lame?
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Are there no Good WWI documentaries on Netflix?
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For all you non-hockey fans: http://whilethemenwatch.com/
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mistakes of the Obama Administration!” and then deleting his comment to make it appear on the site. http://www.lunettesporto.com/l.....c-3_4.html
More likely a staffer but that is pretty clever.
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The good news about this is that no matter how much it is advertised, and how dull twitter gets, there will always be one idiot congressman who is dumb enough to have a major twitter screw-up and make politwoops worthwile.
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"The Sunlight Foundation today announces the launch of Politwoops, a silly name for a site that exists solely to repost any tweets any politician has deleted from his or her Twitter feed."
Is it any sillier than people talking incessantly about "Twitter" or their "tweets"?
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It offers so many opportunities. Such as trying to get "twat" into the lexicon as the past tense of "tweet".
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Politicians have turned Twitter into just another PR machine.
Ah, for the heady days when Twitter was so much more!
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It seems to be an excellent technology for getting NFL players suspended and obnoxious comedians fired from waterfowl-voicing gigs.