Twitter quietly rolls back change made to deleted tweet embeds

Twitter had recently introduced a controversial feature which can lead to deleted tweets disappearing from external website embeds. The platform made a change in its javascript so if a tweet was deleted off the platform, it would show up as a white box in an external website wherever it has been embedded.

This was first spotted by Twitter user who goes by @RuinDig. IndieWeb developer Kevin Marks also called the change out in a blog post criticising Twitter of “tampering with the public record”.

Now, the platform has reversed the change and previously deleted tweets, if embedded on other websites, show up now with text, as they used to.

When this change was being questioned, Twitter’s senior product manager Eleanor Harding had explained that by “obscuring” deleted tweets archived as embeds elsewhere on the web, Twitter was trying to “better respect” user’s wishes. However, this received a lot of flack from developers and open web advocates who believed that Twitter was destroying the public record of tweets, particularly ones made by famous personalities and politicians.

While anyone is free to delete their tweets, controversial or criticised, but if they were embedded in external websites, they would remain as records elsewhere. Removing them from these embeds absolves people from having tweeted something controversial/irresponsible.

“After considering the feedback we heard, we’re rolling back this change for now while we explore different options. We appreciate those who shared their points of view — your feedback helps us make Twitter better,”  a Twitter spokesperson told TechCrunch.

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