

Oops Now You Can Track the Tweets Politicians Tried to Delete - eplanit
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/05/oops-now-you-can-track-the-tweets-politicians-tried-to-delete/257853/?google_editors_picks=true

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yummyfajitas
Was Stephen Fincher really the best example of politicians deleting tweets
that they could find? If only there were examples more significant than
Stephen Fincher's ruminations on bad TV. Maybe something like a politician
named Anthony Dong who tweeted a photo of his dong and resigned from the
senate as a result?

If there were examples like that, maybe we'd really be able to see what this
service is useful for. Oh well, too bad nothing like that ever happened.

[edit: just noticed all their examples of bad tweets come from one party.
Strange. Is the other party immune to bad tweets?]

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empika
This looks like it breaches Twitters rules of the road. Specifically items 1.D
and 2.4.B.

<https://dev.twitter.com/terms/api-terms>

~~~
sp332
_4\. Be a good partner to Twitter

B. Respect the features and functionality embedded with or included in Twitter
Content or the Twitter API. Do not attempt to interfere with, intercept,
disrupt, filter, or disable any features of the Twitter API or Twitter
service, and you should only surface actions that are organically displayed on
Twitter.

For example, your Service should execute the unfavorite and delete actions by
removing all relevant messaging and Twitter Content, not by publicly
displaying to other end users that the Tweet was unfavorited or deleted._

Edit: I know there are some exceptions. For example, the Library of Congress
(in the US) is building a permanent archive of all tweets older than 6 months.
They have said that if you wait longer than that to delete your tweet, they
won't remove it from the archive. I wonder if Twitter would consider a 24-hour
rule for official political accounts? If the tweet is left up for 24 hours,
then even if it's deleted from the twitter stream, you don't have to delete it
from your archive.

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empika
Thanks, I should have indeed just copy and pasted the terms. Here is 1.D

 _Respect the privacy and sharing settings of Twitter Content. Do not share,
or encourage or facilitate the sharing of protected Twitter Content. Promptly
change your treatment of Twitter Content (for example, deletions,
modifications, and sharing options) as changes are reported through the
Twitter API._

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slowpoke
The most important thing in politics is transparency, which many politicians
vehemently oppose for their own selfish reasons. But, as the representatives
of the people, they have to be held accountable for everything they do. Little
steps such as this wonderful project go a long way towards this goal.

~~~
mattmanser
Or you can look at it the other way that they're people who make mistakes but
we somehow want them to magically be perfect human beings.

And then you can look on something like this as a bit weird and creepy, the
digital equivalent to the ultra nerd you come across at gaming night who just
has to correct you about constantly because he hasn't learnt basic social
skills.

~~~
slowpoke
Interestingly, I pretty much expected this answer. Yes, politicians are, in
the end, humans, too. They make errors and we need to acknowledge that.
However, being held accountable for what you do does not exclude that. The
point is not to punish for every little error, it's to be able to
differentiate the small errors from major fuck-ups, deliberate deception and
corruption - which is of course, as I said, not in the interest of a lot of
politicians.

I don't think this is creepy, either. If you decide to become a politician,
this should just be part of what you sign up for - either accept that you will
be held fully accountable for everything you do and say, or don't become a
politician.

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mjw
Is there a human filter on this stuff?

I ask because, say a politician posts and then deletes something embarrassing
on a personal level but which isn't particularly relevant to their political
stance.

They are human beings too and I don't feel there's much to gain by being a
dick and re-posting this sort of thing on an automated basis. It will just get
their backs up and make them a lot more wary about what they post in future.
Net loss for transparency on political issues.

This is something traditional journalists are good at -- knowing when to break
a story and when to show a bit of discretion in order to earn people's trust
and avoid unnecessarily putting people on the defensive.

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anamax
> This is something traditional journalists are good at -- knowing when to
> break a story and when to show a bit of discretion in order to earn people's
> trust and avoid unnecessarily putting people on the defensive.

I disagree. This is precisely where traditional journalists go bad. It's also
where their biases show. (See Obama's Chicago church vs Romney's Mormonism for
an example.)

Trading (non) coverage for access is PR.

~~~
mjw
What's the answer though? every politician should be hounded in every aspect
of their private life just so we can avoid accusations of bias?

That's going to drive good people out of politics. (Cue jokes about 'they
already left a while ago').

Perhaps in part it's an american thing. The political culture there seems
particularly personal and nasty. It's not something I'd like to see spread
unnecessarily.

(And by the way I was referring specifically to discretion on non-politically-
relevant aspects of people's personal life, not selective coverage of
political topics. Although I realise it's a blurry line, one has to draw it
somewhere.)

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anamax
> every politician should be hounded in every aspect of their private life
> just so we can avoid accusations of bias?

Actually, certain politicians are "hounded in every aspect" today. If you
think that's wrong....

> (And by the way I was referring specifically to discretion on non-
> politically-relevant aspects of people's personal life, not selective
> coverage of political topics. Although I realise it's a blurry line, one has
> to draw it somewhere.)

You forget, the personal is political.

Disagree? You'll have to take that up with the folks who are currently
hounding.

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chaistudios
John Boehner is on the ball.

 _Speaker John Boehner ( R )

You know what else has been deleted? Jobs in the Obama economy. Where are the
jobs? #politwoops

Speaker John BoehnerDeleted 13 minutes ago after 36 seconds, originally posted
via web_

~~~
tbeseda
At least one member of his social media staff is pretty smart. Posting a tweet
(with a #politwoops hashtag, no less!) deleting it, knowing it would appear on
the politwoops site in a perfect context for his message.

see: <http://politwoops.sunlightfoundation.com/user/SpeakerBoehner>

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kevinconroy
It would be much more interesting to see what they try to reverse in speeches.
I know that various news and media outlets (including the Daily Show)
highlight this from time-to-time, but unless you've watched all of their
speeches, I don't know of any way to easily see what politicians have said
over time and how their views have changed, evolved, or reversed.

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wesley
How exactly can they get to tweets that have only been posted for a few
seconds (and then deleted)? Does the API still return deleted tweets for some
time?

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zemo
the streaming API publishes the tweets as they come in. Afterwards, if the
tweet has been deleted, the streaming API sends out a delete message.
That's... the only way to do real time. Otherwise it... wouldn't be real time.

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lukejohnnuttall
Maybe they need a time delay - <http://bleep.ly/>

