Library of Congress to be more selective about Twitter archives

Dec. 26 (UPI) -- The Library of Congress on Tuesday announced it will no longer archive every public tweet and instead will selectively acquire a portion of the half a billion tweets posted each day.

The Library of Congress said that more than seven years after Twitter gifted it the entire archive of posts since the social media's inception in 2006, it will change its tweet-collection process. The agency cited changes in how people use the social media platform for its decision.

"The volume of tweets and related transactions has evolved and increased dramatically since the initial agreement was signed," the library wrote in a white paper released along with the announcement.

The Library of Congress said starting Jan. 1, it will "acquire tweets on a selective basis -- similar to our collections of web sites."

It did not reveal what criteria it would use to select tweets, but said it will "focus its efforts on preserving the Twitter collection for future generations."

"Throughout its history, the Library has seized opportunities to collect snapshots of unique moments in human history and preserve them for future generations. These snapshots of particular moments in history often give voice to history's silent masses: ordinary people," the library said.