Be Prepared to Have Your Tweets Become Public Record

Published on May 13, 2010
Written by Public Record Finder Staff

When Twitter first exploded onto the tech scene, most predicted the website to be a passing fad. Now that tweeting has become a part of the English lexicon and is being used by everyone from Barack Obama to Charles de Gaulle Airport, the Library of Congress plans to create a public record archive of every tweet since March 2006. Though private accounts and direct messages will not be a part of the archive, a majority of the 50 million tweets sent daily are public.

While Twitter is the first social media site to be fully archived in the Library of Congress, it is not the first or only form of electronic communication to be stored. Everything from e-mails to text messages is stored in some capacity. In recent high profile court cases, text messages have become pertinent in establishing alibis and character references, while emails are regularly used as evidence involving government officials. Who knows if Twitter accounts will be the next form of communication to enter a court room?

By preserving the 140 character messages to be freely searched by the general public, the Library of Congress is taking a unique step in recording history. While the value of what a high school student in Iowa has said about the latest episode of How I Met Your Mother may not be as important as the first tweet by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, it will provide future generations with a unique perspective about present day culture and trends.