Today, Storyful, in partnership with the Open State Foundation, announced Politwoops for the Irish elections. Politwoops records, stores, and publishes tweets deleted by candidates. The tool has been used effectively in many countries across the world to increase transparency and accountability.
In November 2015, Storyful held a codeathon at Storyful Dublin where its product team built the infrastructure and website for the Irish Election Open Database — an open-source database of Irish election candidates. Storyful journalists, along with students from Dublin City University, populated the database, gathering information, including social media profiles, of more than 400 candidates running across Ireland’s 40 constituencies.
Using the Storyful Irish Election Open Database, maintained by journalists, Open State Foundation will record and publish tweets deleted by Irish candidates.