The Wayback Machine can help you retrieve a deleted Twitter post using its URL. Here, we have explained how to find deleted Tweets on Twitter.
If a Twitter user deletes their post, there are still ways through which you can retrieve it. One of these ways is by using the Wayback Machine.
The Wayback Machine only requires that you enter the URL of the Twitter user and locate the dates before the deletion of the tweet. Afterwards, you will be able to find the deleted tweet.
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A tool like The Wayback Machine allows you to visit old deleted content on websites. All you need is the URL to such a page on the website.
Once you type the URL in the search bar, click the “Browse History” button and choose a date range. You will be able to browse through an archived version of the website.
Although this works for every website with Twitter inclusive, if a Twitter account is set to private or has been removed completely, the Wayback Machine won't provide an archived version of their tweets.
Below, we have explained how to retrieve deleted
How to Find Deleted Tweets on Twitter
Go to the Wayback Machine website
It would be best to start from the Wayback Machine tool to retrieve a deleted post on Twitter. When you visit the page, you will see old content on a website and the old look of websites.
For Instance, you can see Facebook's old look from 2012 by simply entering the URL “Facebook.com and choosing “2010” for the date range. This same process can help you find deleted posts on Twitter by simply entering the URL to the Twitter user's profile, provided that the account owner has not set them to private and the tweet was archived.
Enter the URL to the Twitter user account
If you want to see a deleted tweet, you need to know the URL to the Twitter profile. With this, you can enter the URL in the search bar on the Wayback Machine.
For Instance, to see an already deleted tweet from the former United States President, Donald Trump, you need the link to his Twitter profile. Find the profile on Twitter and highlight the URL. Afterwards, you can copy the highlighted or press “CTRL + C” on the keyboard if you are using a PC.
Once the link to the profile has been copied, head back to the Wayback Machine and paste the link into the search bar. Twitter profile link is usually in this format: https://www.twitter.com/username. The last part following the “/” (slash) is the person's username on Twitter.
Enter the Twitter URL, then click “Browse History”. This will allow you to browse through the user's Twitter archive, especially if they are influential people. This is because accounts with many followers often get crawled than those with little or no followers.
However, this does not mean that accounts with fewer followers won't get crawled.
Choose the correct date and time
To get the exact tweet, you need to know the date it was deleted. After clicking on “Browse History”, the calendar, usually containing a multiple-coloured dot, opens. The color has been explained below.
If you get a blue colour, it signifies that the web server result code the crawler for the capture was good (2xx), while a green means that the crawlers were redirected with a status code (3xx). However, a red means that the crawler met a server error (5xx).
You could also get a bigger or smaller dot. While a bigger dot signifies more snapshots, a smaller one means the opposite. You need to choose a date and time before the tweet was removed, or better still, pick a date and time in which the tweet was made.
If you aren't sure about the exact date and time, you can guess by suggesting an estimated date and time the tweet was made before it finally got removed.
Find the deleted tweet
After suggesting a date and time before the deletion of the said tweet, you will be able to see the user's Twitter profile if the date and time range entered were correct.
Proceed by clicking on “Tweets & replies” to see all the tweets they made and their replies. Now, scroll through their posts to find the deleted tweet.
Now, you should be seeing the deleted tweet from their profile. Hence, choose a different date and time range if you can't. You can continue to perform this step repeatedly until you find the post.
A screenshot attached to this post shows a deleted Elon Musk's reply on Twitter comparing Trudeau to Hitler as retrieved from the Wayback Machine.
Conclusion
People usually forget that anything they post on the internet remains on the internet even if it has been deleted. The Wayback Machine is one of the tools that make this possible.
Even though the Wayback Machine can help you retrieve deleted tweets, it can also be used to drag someone's past too. As we can see, exercising the right to free speech on social media is not as easy.
It is highly advisable to think twice before making that post, not just on Twitter but on every other social media platform. Otherwise, you can choose to remain anonymous on social media.
You can also set your profile to private to prevent your tweets from getting archived. To do this, go to Settings and privacy >> Privacy and safety >> Audience and tagging >> Protect your tweets. The Wayback Machine will no longer be able to retrieve your tweets from people.
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