The deleted tweet archive PostGhost is shutting down after receiving a notice from Twitter, the site announced.

PostGhost argued the public has a right to see the tweets

PostGhost, which had just launched this week, kept copies of tweets sent by verified users with more than 10,000 followers. In Twitter's letter, posted by PostGhost, the company said that recording deleted tweets was a violation of the service's terms. PostGhost agreed to comply and shut down, but in a lengthy response, argued that such users are "public figures" that should have their tweets recorded.

"We believe that for such prominent verified Twitter users, the public has a right to see their public Twitter history, whether or not they grow to regret the statements they've made," PostGhost's statement reads.

Twitter has made clear before that similar services violate the company's terms. In the most prominent case so far, Politwoops, a project made to archive the tweets of politicians, was shut down, only later to be revived. The two have since seemed to reach an understanding.

The PostGhost shutdown, then, is an interesting case study in where Twitter is drawing the line, recognizing that holding politicians accountable may be a public service worthy of bending the rules, even as it declines to do the same for other prominent users.