Inside PR 450

PostGhost, a service that preserved deleted tweets, was told to cease doing this by Twitter. PostGhost complied and shut down its service. But it did not go quietly. They published an Open Letter to Twitter, arguing that the deleted tweets of people with very large followings could have as much impact on public issues as the tweets of politicians. Citing deleted tweets about the Brexit vote by British celebrities with large followings, they say, "the ability to reach millions of followers instantly and leave no trace is a massive and growing power, and one that is currently completely unchecked and undocumented." The PostGhost letter raises important issues that have been debated before and will continue to be debated. And once Gini raised it, we too found ourselves debating it - for the entire episode. So, this is a single episode about one thing that raises a number of important issues. We hope you find it interesting and useful.