Twitter backpedals on revoking Politwoops' license, restores archive of deleted lawmakers' tweets

Twitter announced Thursday that it had reached an agreement with the two transparency organizations, Sunlight Foundation and the Open State Foundation, behind archiving tool Politwoops to bring back the archive of lawmakers' deleted tweets. The announcement reverses Twitter's decision earlier this year to revoke Politwoops' use of its API, which, The Hill reports, had provided "access to Twitter's stream and allowed developers to build the deletion archive around it."

Twitter initially made the decision to revoke access because it said the tool violated its privacy terms, resulting in criticism from those who thought an exception should be made for public officials. Twitter was vague about why it reversed the decision Thursday, only saying that it had reached an agreement "around Politwoops."

"In the coming days and weeks, we'll be working behind the scenes to get Politwoops up and running," the Sunlight Foundation said. "Stay tuned for more."