How to Find Deleted Tweets on Twitter

To find Deleted tweets on Twitter, you need to go to Wayback Machine and enter the URL of the Twitter user.

After you’ve entered the URL of the Twitter user, visit the dates before the tweet was deleted, scroll down, and find the deleted tweet.

The Wayback Machine is a tool that allows you to visit old versions of websites.

If you know the URL of a site, type it into the search bar and click on the “Browse History” button.

You can select a date range and browse an archived version of the website.

Do note that if the person’s Twitter account is private or they have a new account, the Wayback Machine may not have archived their tweets.

Here are 4 steps to find deleted tweets on Twitter:

1. Step #1: Go to Wayback Machine
2. Step #2: Enter the URL of the Twitter user
3. Step #3: Visit the dates before the tweet was deleted
4. Step #4: Scroll down and find the deleted tweet

Step #1: Go to Wayback Machine

The first step is to go to Wayback Machine.

Go to Google, search for “Wayback Machine” and click on the first search result.

Alternatively, you can visit the tool here: https://web.archive.org/.

Wayback Machine allows you to see how websites look in the past.

For example, if you want to see what Twitter looked like in 2010, you can search for “Twitter.com” and click on “2010”.

You can also use it to find deleted tweets on Twitter (if the tweet was archived) by entering the URL of the user.

However, the Twitter profile cannot be private for the tool to work.

Step #2: Enter the URL of the Twitter user

Once you’re on Wayback Machine, you need to enter the URL of the Twitter user into the search bar.

For example, if you want to see Elon Musk’s deleted tweets, you need to copy the link to his Twitter profile first.

You can do this by navigating to his profile on Twitter, highlighting the URL, and pressing “CTRL” + “C” on your keyboard to copy it.

After you’ve copied the URL of the Twitter user (e.g. Elon Musk), go back to Wayback Machine and paste it into the search bar.

The link to Elon Musk’s Twitter profile is https://www.twitter.com/elonmusk.

The last part of the URL is always the person’s Twitter username.

Lastly, click on “Browse History” to start browsing the person’s Twitter archive.

Keep in mind that the Wayback Machine works best for well-known people on Twitter.

This is because the profiles of people who are well-known on Twitter get crawled more often than someone who has a small number of followers.

That said, even if the person has under 1,000 followers on Twitter, their profile will still be crawled.

Step #3: Visit the date and time before the tweet was deleted

After you’ve clicked on “Browse History”, you’ll land on the calendar.

The calendar contains multiple colored dots.

Blue means that the web server result code the crawler obtained for the capture was good (2xx).

Green means that the crawlers got a redirect status code (3xx).

Red means that the crawler saw a server error (5xx).

A bigger dot means that there are more snapshots.

On the other hand, a smaller dot means that there are fewer snapshots.

Now, you need to click on the estimated date and time before the tweet was deleted.

For example, if the tweet was posted on 17 February, you need to click on the “17 February” dot.

If the tweet was posted at 11 am but was deleted at 1 pm, you need to navigate to a snapshot after 11 am but before 1 pm.

If you don’t know the exact date and time that the tweet was posted or deleted, you need to use the trial and error method.

Try estimating when the tweet was posted before it was deleted and navigate to the date of it.

Step #4: Scroll down and find the deleted tweet

After you’ve clicked on the estimated date and time before the tweet was deleted, you’ll land on the person’s Twitter profile.

Now, you need to click on “Tweets & replies” to see all of the person’s tweets and replies.

Don’t just see the person’s tweets because you won’t be able to see their replies.

Lastly, you need to scroll down and find the deleted tweet.

If you’ve selected the right date and time, you’ll be able to find the deleted tweet.

However, if you didn’t manage to find the deleted tweet, you need to select a different date and time.

Repeat the process until you’re successful.

In the screenshot above, I’ve managed to find one of Elon Musk’s deleted replies that compared Trudeau to Hitler using the Wayback Machine.

That tweet drew a lot of media attention and criticism.

Elon realized that the meme was a bit insensitive and deleted it after a few hours.

Conclusion

The phrase, “Once on the internet, always on the internet” is accurate because of tools like the Wayback Machine.

Although the Wayback Machine can be used for finding deleted tweets, it’s absurd to cancel someone from a tweet that they posted years ago.

This makes free speech difficult on social media platforms like Twitter because everyone is worried about voicing their opinions—even if they are true.

This is why some people decide to stay anonymous on Twitter by using a fake name.

If you want to avoid getting your tweets archived, you can make your Twitter profile private by navigating to Settings and privacy > Privacy and safety > Audience and tagging > Protect your tweets.

Further reading

305+ Cool, Aesthetic, and Good Twitter Usernames

How to Turn Off “This Tweet might include sensitive content” on Twitter

How to Reset Twitter Password Without Email or Phone Number