Twitter just cracked down on sites worldwide that preserved politicians' deleted tweets

Politwoops, a website that archived politicians' deleted tweets, was taken down in the United States by Twitter in June — and this weekend, Twitter pulled the rug out from about 30 other countries' versions of Politwoops as well. In a statement to the Open State Foundation, which ran the digital transparency websites, Twitter explained its thinking:

Arjan El Fassed, the director of Open State, argued in his own statement that, "What elected politicians publicly say is a matter of public record. Even when the tweets are deleted, it's a part of parliamentary history. Those tweets were once posted and later deleted. What politicians say in public should be available to anyone. This is not about typos but it is a unique insight on how messages from elected officials change without notice."

Twitter blocked Politwoops in countries including France, India, Britain, Germany, Egypt, Argentina, and Turkey.

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The United States has been without Politwoops for the duration of the summer — likely robbing nosy parties of some great presidential candidate #gaffes.