Who does Twitter actually serve?

Twitter wants to be seen as a supporter of free speech, but it's turning into a tool for the powerful. Twitter’s reversal on Politiwoops looks like a strategic move by the company to curry favor with the politicians they spend hundred of thousands of dollars to lobby each year for special handouts.

Twitter says their decision is about treating all users equally. But Twitter already has many policies that unfairly favor the powerful. Notable figures get “verified” by Twitter, and their algorithm prioritizes tweets based on “influence,” which means that powerful figures get more exposure for their ideas.

Further, Twitter allows companies and political campaigns to pay for instant and complete access to every historical public tweet (including deleted tweets) to help them target their messaging and ad campaigns, exactly the opposite of the stance they are taking on accountability for public officials by killing Politiwoops.

Politicians and public officials are given a lot of power when we elect them, and Twitter needs to make the basic distinction in their terms of service between them and everyone else. Politicians use Twitter as a platform to further their interests. Allowing them to permanently erase their public statements from the record is like something from 1984.

Three years ago, Twitter explicitly allowed Politiwoops to track public officials’ tweets. If we don’t push back against their reversal now, Twitter will continue to move in the direction of the powerful and we will lose one of the most promising transparency and accountability platforms that we have ever had.