Levin Roy · August 8, 2021 · 5 min read Twitter’s ease of expression often leads to embarrassing gaffes and controversial statements by celebrities. While quickly deleted, people always find ways to search and find these deleted tweets.
In this article, we will go over the main methods by which you can find someone’s deleted tweets and save them. From using the Internet Time Machine to scrounging through Google’s cache, there are a bunch of great ways for viewing removed tweets.
By Googling
Nine times out of ten, when a person is looking to find someone’s deleted tweets, that someone is a prominent celebrity. And why not? We all like to see these larger-than-life figures slip up and make mistakes.
The good thing about hunting for deleted celebrity tweets is that you’re probably not the first. From devoted fans to the media, there are a lot of eyeballs on these personalities. Chances are that their tweets have already been copied and screen-shotted by someone out there.
For example, there is a whole website dedicated to recording the deleted tweets of leading politicians, including some of their more controversial statements.
The best source of these saved tweets is Twitter itself. Many savvy users take screenshots of celebrity tweets and share them when they get deleted. This has caught many famous individuals with their feet firmly in their mouths.
Check the Google Cache
Everyone knows that your browser caches web pages to help them load faster. But did you know that Google itself does something similar? While scrolling through Google results, you might have noticed a small arrow next to some entries. Clicking on this arrow allows you to view a cached version of that site.
This can help you view a deleted tweet of a prominent Twitter account. If the tweet was deleted very recently, it is possible that it still exists in the cache. The only catch is that the account needs to be famous enough for Google to be caching it.
- To view the cached version of someone’s tweets, first Google their Twitter handle.
- Their recent tweets will show up in search results. Click on the small downwards facing arrow beside any of the entries and select Cached.
- Google’s cached version of the tweet will open up. The date and time of the cache will be displayed on top. As a new cache can overwrite this data, it is recommended to take a screenshot for yourself.
By Using the Wayback Machine
If the deleted tweet you’re looking for is too old to show up in Google’s cache and too unknown for anyone to have saved it, your best bet is to use the Wayback Machine. Also called the Internet Time Machine, it is a website that archives public pages on the internet for posterity.
While there are some other services that can do the same thing, the Wayback Machine is by far the most popular and the most reliable of these options.
The Internet Archive holds backups of all public web pages taken at periodic intervals of time. You can go back in time and view a website as it was in the past. This includes the Twitter pages of many prominent personalities.
- To search the archives for deleted tweets, open the Wayback Machine website.
- Enter the profile link of the Twitter account you want to view the history of and click on BROWSE HISTORY.
- A calendar will open up, displaying all the dates at which the Twitter account has been archived.
- Hover over a date to view all the snapshots available for that day, and the times at which the snapshots were taken.
- Click on a snapshot to open it. It isn’t just a screenshot; the whole webpage will load up in its past state. You can interact with the page normally, and take screenshots of any of the tweets you want.
By Searching the Twitter Archive
So far we have explored methods to search for someone else’s deleted tweets. But what if you are looking for a way to view your own removed tweets?
For once, you don’t have to look too hard. Twitter itself maintains an archive of all published tweets, even the deleted ones. Normally, it doesn’t allow anyone to access this data, but any user can search through their own Twitter history.
- To download your Twitter archive, open the Twitter homepage and click on More.
- Select Settings and Privacy from the menu that appears.
- This opens up your account settings. Click on Download an archive of your data option from the pane on the right.
- You will be asked to verify your identity through a code sent to your email id. Once you have done so, you will see the button to Request archive.
- It can take a whole day for Twitter to email you the archive. Once you extract the zip file and open it, a normal Twitter window will open in your web browser. The only addition is a search box that lets you find your past tweets by their dates.
Finding Someone’s Deleted Tweets Isn’t Always Easy
Twitter hasn’t exactly made it easy for anyone to search for deleted tweets. While the Twitter Archive can help you access your own tweet history, finding someone else’s removed tweets is far more difficult.
In case the tweets belonged to famous personalities, there is a good chance that the tweet was screenshotted and shared by someone else on Twitter. Google is your best friend for finding such instances.
When that doesn’t net you any results, things get a bit more tricky. For recent tweets, you should look in the cached versions of the Twitter handle, as Google often keeps an old page saved for days. If the tweet is older though, the Wayback Machine is the place to search for.
