How to See Deleted Tweets? – 5 Proven Methods that You Can Try

Twitter is one of the most influential social media platforms, with over 200 million daily active users. People all around the world use Twitter as a source of entertainment and love to share their thoughts.

Considering that, you must have found yourself in a situation where you tweeted something but had to delete it later because you changed your mind. But if you’re thinking that the deleted tweets will remain deleted, you’re in error!

Does anyone know how to find a deleted tweet from another account? Someone I follow tweeted something last night and then deleted it as I was reading it.

— ChicagoScott (@Chi_TownScott) June 25, 2023

So, if you’re curious about how to see deleted tweets, reading this write-up will provide you with all the methods you need to know.

But, why would someone want to see their old tweets that no longer exist on the platform?

Why There’s a Need to See Deleted Tweets?

As you can search the old tweets, you can also find the deleted ones. However, you may need to view the deleted tweets for the following reasons:

• There’s some relevant information in the deleted tweet that you would like to retrieve later. 
• If you want to prove a point and the deleted tweet has some facts or figures to back your statement.
• You are researching a specific topic, and some of the tweets you deleted recently are based on the same subject.

Moreover, there can be several personal reasons why you would like to see a deleted tweet. And, there can be professional reasons as well, like your job requires you to find out deleted tweets for marketing or branding purposes.

How to See Deleted Tweets?

Whether it’s about who blocked you on Twitter or how to find deleted tweets, you can try various methods. Such methods can work even if you have little information about the deleted tweet. 

That said, you can go through these five methods below to see tweets that have been deleted:

Twitter’s Advanced Search is an easy yet effective tool that can help you find a deleted tweet. All you need to do is enter the specific words, phrases, or any information you know about the tweet. Then, follow these steps:

• Launch and log in to the Twitter app on your phone.

• Go to Twitter’s Advanced Search or visit https://twitter.com/search-advanced.

• The first option you’ll have is to fill the Words section with any words that the tweet may contain.

  

• Scroll down and go to the Accounts section. Enter the username under the “From These Accounts” section. For example, if you want to see your own deleted tweet, you have to enter your Twitter username.

  

• If you scroll down a bit more, you’ll find Dates. Here, you can enter the date bracket on which you think you tweeted.

  

• After you fill in all the required information, tap the Search option at the top.

  

The process will filter out the tweets that possibly contain the information you need. And you may find the deleted or archived tweets you’re looking for. However, if this method won’t work, you can continue reading the other methods.

Checking your Twitter archive for deleted tweets is one of the most effective measures that you can also consider. You just have to request Twitter for the archive data from Twitter by following these steps:

• Open the Twitter app and tap on the profile icon at the top left.

  

• From the list of options, tap on Settings and Privacy.

  

• Tap on Your account, which will be the first option on the list.

  

• Then, tap Download an archive of your data.

  

• You’ll need to enter the required information to verify your identity.

• Once you do that, you can proceed to the next step, in which you just have to tap the Request Archive.

  

Once you do that, Twitter will mail you the zip file of the removed tweets archive within 24 hours. You can extract the file later and check if it contains your deleted tweet or not.

Google and other search engines allow you to access old information on any website. All you have to do is open the cache version of the website and access the data. So, you can use this method to find a recently deleted tweet too. Follow these steps:

• Type “Twitter + name of the account” in the Google search bar. See the image below for the example.

  

• Then, click or tap on the three-dot menu you see alongside the website’s link.

  

• Then, select Cached from the menu that appears on the right.

  

Once you do that, you can access the previously cached version of the Twitter account, in which you may find the deleted tweet.

If you’ve tried the methods mentioned above and still can’t figure out how to view deleted tweets, you must try the Wayback Machine. It is an online archive that has archives of more than 800 billion archived versions of websites that also include social media platforms.

So, even if you’ve changed your Twitter handle, you can still find your tweets deleted long ago here. Just follow these steps: 

• Open the website of Wayback Machine.

• Enter the URL of the Twitter page from which you’d like to see the tweets, and click BROWSE HISTORY.

  

• You can also choose the date and time from which you want to view a tweet.

  

After a while, the Wayback machine will provide you with screenshots of all the Tweets within the period you selected.

You can use third-party apps to retrieve the tweets that you delete. For example, Twipu is one of the effective websites that can help you find deleted or archived tweets. However, you can browse the internet for other options as well.

Hence, these five methods can prove to be worthwhile in case you need to find a deleted tweet from your account. But can you see the deleted tweets of other accounts? Let’s hunt this down.

Is It Possible to See Deleted Tweets of Others?

Twitter has a strict policy regarding the personal content of users, and it won’t allow other users to see their deleted tweets. So, only the user having the direct link to the tweet can view it after deleting it.

However, as mentioned earlier, websites Wayback Machine and other platforms can help you find deleted tweets of others. Hence, you can say it’s possible. All you need is the username of the Twitter account, and the time period in which they tweeted, and you can easily get access to their tweets that have been deleted. 

Moreover, social media platforms also have a URL for the photos you post on them, so you can also find out tweets that only contain images.

There are even examples of celebs who lost their jobs due to their “controversial” old tweets.

Fun Fact Celebs Getting Slammed Due to Their Old Tweets Iggy Azalea In 2015, rapper Iggy Azalea was pulled out of her headline set at Pittsburgh Pride. The reason was continuous protests from LGBT groups for her homophobic and racist tweets in 2011. Source: The Guardian James Gunn American filmmaker James Gunn who directed the previous two versions of Guardians of the Galaxy, was fired from the sets of the third volume in 2018. Apparently, some of his decade-old tweets resurfaced, in which he joked about pedophilia and molestation. Source: The Verge Kevin Hart Popular comedian and actor Kevin Hart was set to host the 2019 Academy Awards but had to back out because of the resurfacing of a homophobic tweet. Source: The New York Times Danny Baker BBC fired its 5 Live presenter Danny Baker when he tweeted a bit of racist comment about Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s newborn. Source: BBC

Conclusion – Don’t Tweet Absent-Mindedly

As Twitter is already a popular platform, tweeting something absent-mindedly or carelessly can land you in trouble. The previous statement gets even more serious if you’re a celebrity or an influencer and people love to follow you.

Yes, you can surely delete the tweets that you somehow regret sharing. But, with options like Wayback Machine and other platforms, retrieving deleted or archived tweets is child’s play. So, it is better to be careful and responsible while tweeting something for your own good!