Which organization began archiving all public tweets in 2010?

The Library of Congress began archiving all public tweets in 2010.

In April 2010, Twitter donated access to its complete archive of public tweets to the Library of Congress. The collection reached back to Twitter’s beginning in March 2006, while the agreement also provided an ongoing stream of new public tweets. The project reflected the library’s expanding role in preserving born-digital records, not just printed books and government documents.

The archive was intended to preserve tweet text for research into communication, news, politics, and social trends. It did not necessarily preserve every part of a tweet experience: images, videos, and linked material were not included in the original text archive. The volume also became a major challenge as Twitter’s output grew.

A common mix-up is the National Archives, which preserves federal government records. The Library of Congress is a separate institution, and it was the organization associated with Twitter’s 2010 public-tweet archive. By 2017, the library said it would move toward collecting tweets selectively rather than attempting to retain every new tweet.