by Amy Kerr Hardin
“A member of Congress does not and should not have the same expectation of privacy as a private citizen. Power can only be accountable with a generous application of transparency.” — Christopher Gates, Sunlight Foundation President, speaking on Twitter’s new policy exclusively protecting U.S. politicians.
A significant blow to social media transparency in U.S. politics:
Earlier this month, Twitter abruptly cancelled its 2012 agreement with the U. S. transparency advocacy group, Sunlight Foundation – ending the nonpartisan and nonprofit organization’s ability to curate and catalogue deleted tweets of elected officials and candidates from accounts accessed in their official capacity.
Up ’til June 3 of this year, Sunlight had been charged with the responsibility of archiving the material through a popular searchable public database of U.S. public figures’ regrettable tweets, termed Politwoops, with content ranging from mere typos to colossal 140-character political blunders.
But no more — at least not in the good ole US of A. Elsewhere though — other nations’ Twitter Politwoops websites are still going strong, cataloging political faux pas of all manner from leaders around the world.
In the run-up to the 2016 election, indiscreet political tweets remain a delicious inevitability, and Sunlight’s Politwoops archive would have been a savory resource. One need only consider those 2008 and 2012 non-Twitter screw-ups — with Mitt Romney’s covertly recorded “47 percent” remark, Herman Cain’s overt “Uzbeki-beki-beki-beki-stan,” Sarah Palin’s prime-time choke moment on the reading material query, and Rick Perry’s infamous (pre-smart glasses) “ooops!” — these bungles illustrate the importance of the “in the moment” kind of situations which can make or break a candidate. Late night television continues to relish those slip-ups with the unending pleasure of the kind found in a box of cheap wine.
Christopher Gates, president of the Sunlight Foundation, penned a eulogy for Politwoops expressing deep disappointment in Twitter’s decision and the unprofessional manner in which they delivered the blow.
“We are truly mystified as to what prompted the change of heart, and it’s deeply disappointing to see Twitter kill a project they had supported since 2012. It is also disturbing to us that our feed was cut almost three weeks ago and our only direct communication came from Twitter last night, when we were told that their decision was not something that we could appeal, and, most surprisingly, they were not interested in reviewing any of the email conversation from 2012. Clearly, something changed — and we’re not likely to ever know what it was.”
A few items from the department of irony:
- U.S. Politwoops was founded in the spirit of a similar Twitter-based disclosure service in the Netherlands that remains open as of this writing. There are about a dozen other countries participating in Politiwoops around the world. (Some additional links below)
- At the same time Twitter thumbed its nose at transparency stateside, they were in talks with the Cuban government about enabling social media for their citizenry.
- Sunlight Foundation played an integral part in bestowing American elected officials with the power to freely partake of Twitter in their leadership roles. Up until 2008, official use of social media was not permitted under congressional rules. At that time, Sunlight Foundation hosted the Open House Project which recommended an overhaul of rules regarding use of media such as Twitter and YouTube. They additionally launched a campaign called Let Our Congress Tweet to build public support for reform. Later that year the rules were changed to allow use of social media.
It is unfortunate that Twitter decided to take a Snapchat approach to its political speech content. Gates lamented with this warning:
“Unfortunately, Twitter’s decision to pull the plug on Politwoops is a reminder of how the Internet isn’t truly a public square. Our shared conversations are increasingly taking place in privately owned and managed walled gardens, which means that the politics that occur in such conversations are subject to private rules.”
Speculation of trouble at the top in Twitter
We can’t help but wonder if Twitter was the subject of some political pressure. For weeks speculation swirled about an imminent shakeup in their boardroom which led to the very recent ouster of CEO Dick Costolo, while rumors of a Google takeover continue to circulate. This is not the first time they’ve churned their leadership — The Economic Times likened Twitter to “a place more akin to ‘Game of Thrones’ than Silicon Valley-style nose-to-the-grindstone mettle.”
Here be dragons?
