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Andy Rubin Didn’t Delete “Open” Tweet, Twitter Lost It, Then Found It

the definition of open: “mkdir android ; cd android ; repo init -u git://android.git.kernel.org/platform/manifest.git ; repo sync ; make”
— Andy Rubin (@Arubin) October 19, 2010

A couple days ago I noted something odd: Andy Rubin’s first tweet, the one in which he gives the “definition of open” (for Android) was gone. Given that Rubin had just sent another tweet updating some numbers for Android, I assumed he (or someone) deleted it. And I wasn’t alone. Several Google employees rushed to Rubin’s defense, saying he likely deleted it due to the fact that the server which was hosting the code had been hacked over the summer and the code was subsequently moved, so Rubin’s tweet was no longer technically true.

But that explanation didn’t mesh with other things I was hearing as to why Rubin deleted it. Depending on who you talked to, there were a number of reasons, actually. And there’s a good reason for that — no one knew. And there’s a good reason no one knew: Rubin didn’t actually delete the tweet.

I reached out to Twitter about this possibility yesterday and they got back to me today confirming that it was a bug which deleted Rubin’s tweet. They fixed the bug, and the tweet has been restored.

“During maintenance we encountered a bug. It caused us to drop a very small percentage of tweets. One of those was Andy’s. As soon as we realized this, we began work to restore them. We were able to recover them quickly and they’ve now been restored,” Twitter spokesperson Carolyn Penner tells me (from vacation no less).

She also notes this hasn’t happened before, so it was a tricky thing to figure out what was going on. So, stand down everyone. I apologize for getting everyone into a tizzy. Rubin’s open tweet still stands, even if it is technically incorrect now.

Update: I’m glad Rubin didn’t delete the tweet, because the debate rages on: