Politicians do their best to hold people accountable, but much too often, people aren't equipped with the tools necessary to hold them accountable in return.
Twitter wants to help change that. On Thursday, just before the New Year, the social media network announced that it's reinstating Politwoops, the website that documents the nonsensical tweets that politicians send out to the masses, only to regret and delete later.
This comes after the site was shuttered in June, largely due to privacy issues. However, Twitter wanted to make a concerted effort toward transparency of public officials and struck agreements with the Sunlight Foundation and the Open State Foundation to restore Politwoops and politicians' illogical tweets — whether published or deleted.
"Politwoops is an important tool for holding our public officials, including candidates and elected or appointed public officials, accountable for the statements they make, and we're glad that we've been able to reach an agreement with Twitter to bring it back online both in the U.S. and internationally," Jenn Topper, communications director for the Sunlight Foundation, said as part of Twitter's announcement Thursday.
Added Arjan El Fassed, director of the Open State Foundation: "This agreement is great news for those who believe that the world needs more transparency. Our next step is now to continue and expand our work to enable the public to hold public officials accountable for their public statements."
These agreements and the relaunching of Politwoops comes just over two months since Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey urged the need for transparency while speaking at the company's "Flight" press conference.
"We have a responsibility to communicate our roadmap in a clear and transparent way to everyone in this community," Dorsey said at the time. "We have a responsibility to have an open dialogue with you to make sure we are serving you in the best way. We have a responsibility to continue to empower organizations that bring more transparency to public dialogue, such as Politwoops."
Donald Trump's presence in the political realm and the deluge of controversial statements he delivers alone make the reinstatement of Politwoops well worth it.
