US Library of Congress Ends Twitter Archiving Project

It all started back in 2010. The US Library of Congress decided that every single public tweet deserves to be in an archive. They even went out of their way in preserving everyone’s Tweets for future generations. Reaching out as far back as 2006 to retroactively incorporate older messages. A white paper published this month provides an update on the decade long archive, announcing its end. The collection of tweets will still proceed until December 31, 2017, but they will be heavily curated.

Why Stop the Archival Project?

According to the Library of Congress whitepaper, it is because the “nature of Twitter has changed over time”. The archive only receives text and not images. Tweets now are more often visual than simply textual.

“The Library generally does not collect comprehensively. Given the unknown direction of social media when the gift was first planned, the Library made an exception for public tweets. With social media now established, the Library is bringing its collecting practice more in line with its collection policies.” the Library said in a statement.

The timeline for when these archives will become publicly accessible is unknown at this time. So that means for now we cannot see this classless, albeit hilarious original Tweet by Donald Trump on September 11, 2013 which he has since deleted.

…Thankfully, his series of Tweets about the love affair of Twilight co-stars Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson back in 2012 is still there for everyone to enjoy.