Heroin for Political Junkies
May 31, 2012 at 3:23 PM Leave a comment
How do they do this? From the Sunlight Foundation:
Today we’re proud to unveil Politwoops, the only comprehensive collection of deleted tweets by U.S. politicians. From minor typos to major gaffes, Politwoops is now there to offer a searchable window into what they hoped you didn’t see.
The project follows the official Twitter accounts of members of Congress, President Obama and the slew of presidential candidates to track whenever they delete a Tweet and record the elapsed time before removal. The growing collection of more than 3,000 tweets in the past six months includes screenshots of included links and has individual pages for each politician. The Politwoops archive serves as an illuminating rough draft of how politicians and campaigns hone their social media messaging and amend their record. The collection includes previously-reported episodes like Senator Chuck Grassley’s hacked account and other deletions that slipped by unnoticed, like Representative Jeff Miller tweeting a link to a Facebook poll asking, “Was Obama born in the United States?”
I scrolled through two or three pages on Politiwoops (love the name) and what struck me was that none of the deleted tweets were particularly offensive or potentially embarrassing, such as containing misspellings or profanity. But I can see how if one spent enough time on the site patterns would begin to emerge.
Anyway, I just thought I’d let you all know, Politiwoops is out there. Fun place to spend some time on a very (very) rainy day.
Entry filed under: Democrats, Including Blue Dogs & "Liberals", Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates". Tags: .
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