Twitter blocks Politwoops for breaching terms of service

Archiving statements made, then deleted, by elected officials goes against social network's rules, it says, as UK spin-off's fate hangs in the balance

The archiving service Politwoops, which tracks and retains tweets deleted by politicians, has been blocked from accessing Twitter after the social network accused it of "breaching its terms of service".

Funded by the Washington DC-based nonprofit Sunlight Foundation which campaigns for transparency in government, Politwoops has been collecting deleted tweets since 2012, creating an invaluable archive of all the things elected officials wish they could make disappear down the memory-hole.