(Thubnail image: CNET)

More than 105 million people around the world use it. Now the government will have access to the millions of messages sent around the world via Twitter.
 
We have perspectives from The Atlantic, FOX News, MSNBC, CNN and Geek Shui Living.

Twitter donated its entire archives to the Library of Congress—that's right 140 characters at a time. Now people are questioning why the library would want to know that information like what people ate for lunch. The Atlantic provides one reason for the interest.

 
"In its efforts to capture the nation's cultural development, the library receives copies of every book, pamphlet, map, print and piece of music registered in the U.S. …the movement to collect, archive, and disseminate online works is the logical continuation of this mission.”
 
CNN explains how the process will work—specifically what twitter posts the library will save.

 
“They say they are archiving sort of the big picture messages, they’re not doing like direct messages to other people, so the things we send back and forth to each other off the air, don’t worry that’s safe, it’s not going to be archived.”

MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow points out that it will include some important information…and some not-so-important stuff.
 
“But that still leaves us with false reports of celebrity deaths, almost instant reporting of major news stories as they happened, everything Shaquille O’Neil ever thought, everything Neil Patrick Harris ever thought, thanks God, and of course heroic and heartbreaking political organizing and activism the world over.”
 
However, FOX News raises questions about privacy, but says in the end Twitter users don’t have to be included.

“Twitter users can choose their privacy settings if they want to, they can set their profile to private or they can leave it open for everyone to see.  So, what the Library of Congress has said is that it’s only going to archive those non-private tweets.”
 
Techie blog Geek Shui Living questions how the government is going to legally ensure a person’s right to privacy.

“Hopefully, the Library of Congress already has safeguards and policies in place that cover this. If not, they will certainly have to get moving and put something together. After all we are talking about ensuring U.S. Constitutional rights are afforded, as prescribed.”
 
So Tweets, is this a matter of privacy or public record?