Twitter in human rights/political mess

If you recall, I posted an article in August about twitter closing some twoop sites to save politicians’ tweets.

Now, seventeen international human rights and transparency groups, including the Sunlight Foundation, EFF, Free Press, Open State Foundation, Human Rights Watch and others, are taking Twitter to task for its decision to ban the Politwoops tool last month, which was used to track politicians’ deleted tweets. Twitter had earlier banned the U.S. version of this tweet-tracking service in May, saying it was in violation of Twitter’s developer agreement. At the time, Twitter also noted that every user on its service should have the same rights to privacy.

But the organizations argue that what politicians say is a matter of public record, and therefore, they shouldn’t have the same expectations of privacy when using social media as ordinary citizens do.

Politwoops, for those unfamiliar, was a tool developed by Dutch organization, the Open State Foundation, over three years ago. The code was used to track politicians’ and diplomats’ remarks on Twitter – and their subsequent removal – in 30 countries around the world. In the U.S., a government transparency group called the Sunlight Foundation used that same code to create a U.S. version of the service.

Twitter shut down the U.S. Politwoops account in May, but dozens of other international accounts continued to operate until this August. 

According to Twitter, preserving deleted tweets violates its developer agreement. But in a statement, the social networking company also added that “honoring the expectation of user privacy for all accounts is a priority for us, whether the user is anonymous or a member of Congress.”

Of course, Twitter has the right to run its network as it sees fit, but it’s hard not to believe that the company’s decision is in part influenced by its struggles to grow its user base. Making high-profile public figures uncomfortable, and possibly alienating them from the service by allowing rights groups to shame them thanks to their uncovered deleted tweets, could see them leaving Twitter for good. And with fewer notable accounts to follow, user growth and engagement could also be impacted.

In the jointly signed letter posted today, the rights groups say they recognize that Twitter’s API license allows it to enforce its terms.

“However, Twitter should also take into account human rights when it exercises that discretion—and particularly the right of people to access to information where it serves the interest of public accountability and transparency in a democratic society,” the statement continues. “There are times when what is legal must be outweighed by what is right.”

In other words, the groups are appealing to Twitter’s sense of morality – as if a business where profit is the key goal is motivated such sentiment.

Making their case, the groups also point out that court systems have long-held that public officials don’t have the same expectations of privacy as others, and when politicians turn to Twitter to amplify their views, they’re inviting “greater scrutiny of their expression.” The groups also believe that in the case of Politwoops, citizens’ rights to information outweighs “an official’s right to a retroactive edit.”

Source: TechCrunch

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